His own faith was, he thanked God, fairly robust, but still an undoubted occurrence of the sort acted as a refreshment, "like rain on a pasture when it is rather dry, you know," he added, breaking into simile.
I remarked that she had not seemed to speak in the sense he indicated, but appeared to allude to something quite near at hand and more or less immediate.
"I don't know that there is anything nearer at hand than the Hereafter," he answered.

"I expect she meant that you will probably soon die and join her in Paradise, if you are worthy to do so.

But of course it is not wise to put too much reliance upon words spoken by people at the last, because often they don't quite know what they are saying.

Indeed sometimes I think this was so in the case of my own wife, who really seemed to me to talk a good deal of rubbish.

Good-bye, I promised to see Widow Jenkins this afternoon about having her varicose veins cut out, and I mustn't stop here wasting time in pleasant conversation.