Then dropsy supervened, and the end loomed slowly sure.
It was then, after eighteen months' abstention, that I took the Sacrament for the last time.

My mother had an intense longing to communicate before she died, but absolutely refused to do so unless I took it with her.

"If it be necessary to salvation," she persisted, doggedly, "I will not take it if darling Annie is to be shut out.

I would rather be lost with her than saved without her." I went to a clergyman I knew well, and laid the case before him; as I expected, he refused to allow me to communicate.

I tried a second, with the same result.