Then she forgot her lack of faith and her rebellion, and she realized that her only hope of life was from that which is outside life.

She knelt down beside her bed, and began to pray over and over, "O God, don't let my mother die, and I will always be a good girl! O God, don't let my mother die, and I will always be a good girl!" Then, without any warning, the door opened and her father stood there, and behind him was her aunt Maria, weeping bitterly, and Mrs.
White, also weeping.
"Maria," gasped out Harry Edgham.

Then, as Maria rose and went to him, he seized upon her as if she were his one straw of salvation, and began to sob himself, and Maria knew that her mother had died..