At the beginning of life there had been offered to her, as there is
offered to each one in turn, the choice of many banners, one of which
she was bound to uphold until the end—fame, wealth, peace, honour, and
love and sacrifice, which go together.
She had chosen the banner of love and sacrifice. Very feebly she sought
to grasp it now; it seemed to her a visible fragment which she must wave
as her breath died. She fell back. And suddenly out of the darkness
she seemed to smell the perfume of a rose, a pure white flower that
turned deep red before her eyes.
Was it fancy, or did the Figure on the wall, the crucified Christ, turn
His head? All was blurred and indistinct, but once again she thought
she heard Farquharson’s saddened voice in her ears, and Farquharson’s
touch laid tenderly on her brow. She tried to say his name, but her
stiffening lips would not frame it. She tried to grasp her rose, but it
fell in dust.
In his cell below, an old monk, weeping, lifted his voice in passionate
appeal.
"Oro supplex et acclinis
Cor contritum quasi cinis,
Gere curam mei finis."
In the morning they found her still and quiet, in the possession of the
one good gift which life had brought her. Her face was turned, her
fingers pointing towards, but not grasping, the little wooden crucifix
upon the wall. So they unhung it and laid it on her breast.
THE END
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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