There is a better! Let him come to you."
"But he won't come! He don't know! He's in Jimmy's grip tighter
in death than he was in life." Mary began to sob again.
"He will come," said Father Michael. "Be calm! Wait a little, my
child. After all these years, don't spoil a love that has been
almost unequaled in holiness and beauty, by anger at the dead.
Let me go to Dannie. We are good friends. I can tell him Jimmy
made a confession to me, that he was trying to repeat to him,
when punishment, far more awful than anything you have suffered,
overtook him. Always remember, Mary, he died unshriven!" Mary
began to shiver. "Your suffering is over," continued the priest.
"You have many good years yet that you may spend with Dannie; God
will give you living children, I am sure. Think of the years
Jimmy's secret has hounded and driven him! Think of the penalty
he must pay before he gets a glimpse of paradise, if he be not
eternally lost!"
"I have!" exclaimed Mary. "And it is nothing to the fact that he
took Dannie from me, and yet kept him in my home while he
possessed me himsilf for years. May he burn----"
"Mary! Let that suffice!" cried the priest. "He will! The
question now is, shall I go to Dannie?"
"Will you till him just what Jimmy told you? Will you till him
that I have loved him always?"
"Yes," said Father Michael.
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