She received
him with downcast eyes and a demeanour of humility, though she was
resolved to flare up against him if he should attack her too cruelly.
But the man was as mild to her and as kind as ever he had been in her
childhood, when he would kiss her, and call her his little nun, and
tell her that if she would be a good girl she should always have a
white dress and roses at the festival of St Nicholas. He put his hand
on her head and blessed her, and did not seem to have any abhorrence of
her because she was going to marry a Jew. And yet he knew it.
He asked a few words as to her father, who was indeed better on this
morning than he had been for the last few days, and then he passed on
into the sick man's room. And there, after a few faintest words of
confession from the sick man, Nina knelt by her father's bedside, while
the priest prayed for them both, and forgave the sinner his sins, and
prepared him for his further journey with such preparation as the
extreme unction of his Church would afford.
When the prayer and the ceremony were over, and the viaticum had been
duly administered, the priest returned into the parlour, and Nina
followed him.
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