The Count of the Saxon Shore; or The Villa in Vectis. Alfred John Church

topics she made good way; when she wandered away from them, as naturally she sometimes did, she was not so successful. One day it unluckily occurred to her that she would appeal to his fears.

      “Do not refuse to listen,” she said to him, “for if He is infinitely good to those who love Him, He can also be angry with those who love Him not.”

      “What will He do with them?” asked the young Saxon.

      “He will send them to suffer in everlasting fire.”

      “Ah!” answered the youth, “I have heard from our wise men of such a place into which Odin drives cowards, and oath-breakers, and such as are false to their friends. But they say it is a place of everlasting cold, and this indeed seems to me to be worse than fire.”

      “Yes,” said Carna, “there is such a place of torment, and it is kept not only for the wicked, as you say, but for all who do not believe.”

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      “Will the Lord Christ then banish thither all who do not own Him as their Master, and call themselves by His name?”

      “Yes—and think how terrible a thing it would be if it should happen to you.”

      “And that is why you are so anxious to persuade me?”

      “Yes.”

      “And why you were so troubled about my brother when you could not make him understand before he died?”

      “Yes. Oh! it was dreadful to think he should pass away when safety was in his reach.”

      “And you think that the Lord Christ has sent him to that place because he did not know Him?”

      “I fear that it must be so.”

      “Then He shall send me also. For how am I better because I have lived longer? No—I will be with my brother, whom I loved, and with my own people.”

      And neither for that day nor for many days to come would he speak again on this subject. Carna was greatly troubled; but she began to think whether there might not be something in what the young man had said.