"Mother," he said, going close to her and placing his hand on her head, "I tell you that I have been with some one who is ill."
"There is nobody ill in that house."
"Not all sick persons are in bed."
"Then in that case you yourself are more ill than the woman you went to see, and you must take care of yourself. Paul, I am only an ignorant woman, but I am your mother, and I tell you that sin is an illness worse than any other, because it attacks the soul. Moreover," she added, taking his hand and drawing him down towards her that he might hear her better, "it is not yourself only that you have to save, O child of God … remember that you must not destroy her soul … nor bring her to harm in this life either."
He was bending over her, but at these words he shot upright again like a steel spring. His mother had cut him to the quick. Yes, it was true; during all that hour of perturbation since he had quitted the woman he had thought only of himself.
He tried to withdraw his hand from his
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