They all paused. I had thrown myself beside her in an agony of
helpless grief, and putting my arms around held her tight. For a few
minutes our sorrowful hearts beat together, whilst the friends around
us turned away their eyes that ran tears silently. Then Van Helsing
turned and said gravely. So gravely that I could not help feeling
that he was in some way inspired, and was stating things outside
himself.
"It may be that you may have to bear that mark till God himself see
fit, as He most surely shall, on the Judgement Day, to redress all
wrongs of the earth and of His children that He has placed thereon.
And oh, Madam Mina, my dear, my dear, may we who love you be there to
see, when that red scar, the sign of God's knowledge of what has been,
shall pass away, and leave your forehead as pure as the heart we know.
For so surely as we live, that scar shall pass away when God sees
right to lift the burden that is hard upon us. Till then we bear our
Cross, as His Son did in obedience to His Will. It may be that we are
chosen instruments of His good pleasure, and that we ascend to His
bidding as that other through stripes and shame. Through tears and
blood. Through doubts and fear, and all that makes the difference
between God and man."
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