Her
precepts teach that marriage, to be legal, must also be sacramental.
It _is_ a sacrament; one which is held in high esteem and respect by
the Church, and no Catholic can contract it otherwise, without censure.
In case you persist, your marriage will not be recognized by the Church
as valid, or your offspring legitimate."
"I shall have a great many to keep me in countenance," replied Helen,
coldly. "I have no idea of submitting to every thing; Jerrold would
not, I am sure, consent to being married by a Catholic priest, and I do
not intend to thwart him, as I consider it a matter of very little
importance."
"Helen, listen to me. You must listen to me. It shall be the last
time, if you will only be patient. There is an hour coming, if you
persist in your present course, when you will wish you had never been
born; an hour when all human aid must fail, and all human interests and
splendor drop away from you like rotten rags; when your soul,
affrighted and shrinking, will go forth, obeying the inexorable laws,
of the Creator, to meet its Almighty Judge. When the shadows will fall
darkly around your way, Helen, and phantoms of darkness lie in wait,
until the irrevocable sentence is spoken, which will consign you to
utter woe; when, stripped of all, you will stand shivering and _alone_
before an awful tribunal, to give evidence against _yourself_. Oh,
Helen! dear Helen! _how_ will it be with you then? _how_ will you
escape, oh faithless daughter of the Church!"
"May!" cried Helen, while her face grew deadly white, and she grasped
her cousin's arm; "hush! how _dare_ you speak thus to me? It is cruel!
Henceforth utter no such language to me while we both live.
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