"At the great crisis your little hand, as a hand from another world—as Irene's hand might have done—came between us.
"Your coming saved him. I could not let you share his fate."
"Oh, thank God!" I said. "Nadine, tell me—tell God, that you are sorry, that you repent your dreadful purpose."
"I do, I do," she whispered. "Lying here I see all the sins, the errors, the mistakes. I do not despair of God's mercy though I am myself deserving of His wrath. Irene used to tell me that when she fell asleep, in the new world of school life, it was in your arms. Put them round me, Gloria, and let me fall asleep."
I placed my arm gently, very gently, under her head, and then sat very still.
I heard the big clock in the clock-tower slowly and distinctly strike the hour of twelve, I saw the pale lips move and heard them murmur: "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere mei."
But save for this, all was silence! And in the silence Princess Nadine slept.