iest.

"Yes--no," he said.

They went out, and a few minutes later, as if he had been waiting
outside the door, a dark-robed priest entered. The two were left alone
together.

The dying man turned his face toward the newcomer.

"I am going to die," he said.

"What is your religion?" asked the priest.

"The religion of my own country, the Greek Orthodox Church."

"That is a heresy which you must instantly abjure. There is only one
true religion, the Roman Catholic religion. Confess now. I will
absolve you and baptise you."

The other did not reply.

"Tell me what sins you have committed. You will repent and everything
will be forgiven you."

"My sins?"

"Try to remember. Shall I help you?" He nodded toward the door. "Who
is that person?"

"My--wife," said the man with slight hesitation, which did not escape
the priest, who was leaning over him with ears pricked. He smelt a
rat.

"How long has she been your wife?"

"Two days."

"Oh, two days! Now I have struck it. And before that, you sinned with
her?"

"No," said the man.

The priest was put out of countenance.

"Well, I suppose you are not lying. Why didn't you sin? It is
unnatural. After all," he insisted, "you are a man."

The sick man was bewildered and began to get excited. Seeing this, the
priest said:

"Do not be surprised, my son, if my questions are direct and to the
point. I ask you in all simplicity, as is my august duty as a priest.
Answer me in the same simple spirit, and you will enter into communion
with God," he added, not without kindness.

"She is a young girl," said the old man. "I took her under my
protection when she was quite a child. She shared the hardships of my
traveller's life, and took care of me. I married her before my death
because I am rich and she is poor."

"Was that the only reason--no other reason at all?"

He fixed his look searchingly on the dying man's face, then said, "Eh?"
smiling and winking an eye, almost like an accomplice.

"I love her," said the man.

"At last, you are confessing!" cried the priest. He buried his eyes in
the eyes of the dying man. The things he said fairly hit him as he lay
there.

"So you desired this woman, the flesh of this woman, and for a long
time committed a sin in spirit? Didn't you? Eh?

"Tell me, when you were travelling together, how did you arrange for
rooms and beds in the hotels?

"You say she took care of you? What did she have to