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28 once performed? When the time comes and, like an angel fallen from heaven's heights, you are plunged into the nether depths of hell!

MARY. Oh! Oh!

AB. Why did you despise me? Why did you desert me? Why did you not tell me of your disastrous fall? For then dear Ephraim and I would have done penance, full penance, on your behalf.

MARY. Once I had fallen into sin, I did not dare, defiled as I was, to approach your saintly presence.

AB. But has there ever been anyone altogether without sin, except only the Virgin's Son?

MARY. No.

AB. It is human nature to sin, but to persevere in sin is of the devil. It is not the man who suddenly falls by the way who deserves condemnation, but the man who fails to rise up again at once.

MARY. Oh, what a wretch I am!

AB. Why fall down? Why lie motionless on the ground? Get up again, and listen to what I have to say.

MARY. I fell because I was seized with