—but even the ancient pagans noticed that Nature imposes nothing on you that Nature doesn’t prepare you to bear. If that is true even of a cat, then is it not more perfectly true of a creature with rational intellect and will – whatever you may believe of Heaven?’ ‘Shut up, damn you shut up!’ she hissed. ‘If I am being a little brutal,’ said the priest, ‘then it is to you, not to the baby. The baby, as you say, can’t understand. And you, as you say, are not complaining. Therefore—’ ‘Therefore you’re asking me to let her die slowly and—’ ‘No! I’m not asking you. As a priest of Christ I am
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