Now, however, when he realized that the being he most tenderly loved was fast retreating from his view, he felt that there was a vast difference between the reasonings of philosophy and the revelations of Christianity; and, in the agony of his soul, he would have given worlds for the assurance of a reunion. On this subject Frances dwelt; and he now listened patiently, without once looking at his watch, or being seized with one of his paroxysms of coughing. Still, however, he doubted; for how could he trust without _bonds_ and _contracts_? No one had come back to tell him _individually_ the whole truth. "I acknowledge," said he, somewhat reproachfully, "that this conviction is earnestly to be desired. If saves you from the agony that at this moment rends my heart." "My dear friend," replied Frances, in a voice interrupted by deep and solemn emotion, "religion is not given us for an opiate to be used at a last extremity, merely to lull the sense of pain. The views I express are not new to me; they have been for many years my daily food; they have supported me through hours of bodily anguish; . . . the human frame does not decay as gradually as mine without repeated warnings; . . . they will conduct me through the dark valley of death, when I can no longer lean upon your arm . . . Their efficacy does not merely consist in soothing the bitterness of parting; they have a health giving energy that infuses courage and fortitude amidst the disappointments and evils of life." "Henceforth," exclaimed Mr. Draper,--and at that moment he was sincere,--"every thing of a worldly nature is indifferent to me!" "All men," continued Frances, without replying to his exclamation, "are subject to the reverses of life, but particularly men of extensive business connections. They are like the spider in his cobweb dwelling; touch but one of the thousand filaments that compose it, and it vibrates to the centre, and often the fabric is destroyed that has been so skilfully woven. There is a divine teaching in religion, which at such times restores equanimity to the mind, gives new aspirations, and proves that all in this life is not lost, and nothing for that to come."