oke deliberately,
however, thinking that these words _conscience_ and _duty_ might
arrest the minister's attention, and that he would perhaps, by some
means, throw light upon questions which were constantly becoming more
perplexing to her. Was conscience an unfailing guide? Was one person's
duty to be pronounced upon by another without scruple, and defined
with unfaltering exactness? But the words had not arrested the
minister's attention.

"If they could only see that there is nothing to be done!" said he.
"Oh, they will, Benigna! Had they only the faith, Benigna!"

"Yet how vain their sacrifice, for they have it not!" said she. And
as if she would not prolong an interview which must be full of pain,
because no light could proceed from any words that would be given them
to speak, Sister Benigna turned abruptly toward the basement door when
she had said this, and entered it without bestowing a parting glance
even on the minister.

He walked away after an instant's hesitation: indeed there was nothing
further to be said, and she did well to go.

Going homeward by a path which led along the hillside above the
village street, he must pass the small house separated from all
others--the house which was the appointed resting-place of all who
lived in Spenersberg to die there--known as the Corpse-house. To it
the bodies of deceased persons were always taken after death, and
there they remained until the hour when they were carried forth for
burial.

As Mr. Wenck approached he saw that the door stood open: a few steps
farther, and this fact was accounted for. A bent and wrinkled old
woman stood there with a broom in her hand, which she had been using
in a plain, straight-forward manner.

"Ah, Mary," he said, "what does this mean, my good woman?"

"It is the minister," she answered in a low voice, curtseying. "I was
moved to come here this morning, sir, and see to things. It was time
to be brushing up a little, I thought. It is a month now since the
last."

"I will take down the old boughs then, and garnish the walls with new
ones. And have you looked at the lamp too, Mary?"

"It is trimmed, sir," said the woman; and the minister's readiness to
assist her drew forth the confession: "I was thinking on my bed in the
night-watches that it must be done. There will one be going home soon.
And it may be myself, sir. I could not have been easy if I had not
come up to tidy the house."

Having finished her task, which was a