Open the window, Rosa, I can hardly see, and I must finish this
stocking before I quit tonight."
Rosa obeyed, and a soft breeze entered, laden with the perfume of the
garden, and Teresa resumed; "After the doctor had gone that afternoon your
mother called me and said, Teresa, tell me the truth. The doctor believes I
am going to die; does he not?' I didn't know what to answer her. Your
father hoped in spite of the doctor's opinion that she'd pull through, and
did not wish me to let your poor mother know that there was any danger. But
here she lay praying me with her joined hands that I should tell her the
truth. She spoke with great difficulty and I feared that soon she would not
be able to speak at all, and therefore weeping, told her the whole truth."
"And then?
"Then she said to me, 'Teresa, I'm certainly afraid to die! I'm afraid! I'm
afraid!"
"'But,' said I, 'Madame, why should you be afraid? You have always been so
good to everybody. The good God will take you to heaven.' But she could not
be calm.
"'According to the world's standard perhaps yes, Teresa--but before God! To
think that in a few hours I shall be face to face with the Lord Jesus and I
am not prepared!--No, no, let me speak, Teresa! I have done my duty by my
husband and by my children, but I have forgotten God.
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