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"You told me something last night," she said. "You said that if I needed you I was to call to you with my thoughts, my heart. "

ing you he wasn't evil, but that he was the adversary of God, that he could change your mind on things?"

"I don't know," she said. "I might. I would maintain my free will throughout the experience, but I very well might. "

"That's just it. Free will. Am I losing my will and my mind?"

"You seem to be in full possession of both and an enormous amount of supernatural strength. "

"Do you sense the evil in me?"

"No, you're too beautiful for that, you know it. "

"But there must be something rotten and vicious inside me that you can feel and see. "

"You're asking for consolation and I can't give that to you," she said. "No, I don't sense it. I believe the things you've told me. " "Why?"

She thought for a long time. Then she stood up and went to the glass wall.

"I have put a question to the supernatural," she said, looking down, perhaps at the roof of the cathedral. I could not see it from where I stood. "I have asked it to give me a vision. "

"And you think I might be the answer. "

"Possibly," she said, turning and looking at me again. "That is not to say that all of this is happening because of Dora and what Dora wants. It is, after all, happening to you. But I have asked for a vision, and I've been given a series of miraculous incidents, and yes, I believe you, as surely as I believe in the existence of and the goodness of God. "

She came towards me, stepping carefully through the scattered folders.

"You know, none of us can say why God allows evil. "

"Yes. "

"Or whence it came into the world. But the world over, there are millions of us¡ªPeople of the Book¡ªMoslem, Jew,

Catholic, Protestant¡ªdescendants of Abraham¡ªand over and over we keep being drawn into tales and schemes in which evil is present, in which there is a Devil, in which there is some element that God allows, some adversary, to use your friend's word. "

"Yes. Adversary. That's exactly what he said. "

"I trust in God," she said.

"And you're saying I should do that too?"

"Yes. "

"You do the same. If you go with this creature, and you need me, call to me. Let me say it this way: If you cannot pull away of your own volition and you need my intercession, then send out your call! I'll hear you. And I'll cry out to the heavens for you. Not for justice but for mercy. Will you make me that promise?"

"Of course. "

"What will you do now?" she asked.

"Spend the remaining hours with you, taking care of your affairs. Making sure, through my numerous mortal alliances, that nothing can hurt you in terms of all these possessions. "

"My father's done it," she said. "Believe me. He's covered it very cleverly. "

"Are you sure?"

"He did it with his usual brilliance. He left more money to fall into the hands of his enemies than the fortune he left to me. They have no need to go looking for anyone. Once they realize he is dead, they will begin to snatch his available assets right and left. "

"You are certain of all this. "