Part 4, Chapter 26 Summary

A woman traveling between the porch and the altar on this first day of Lent makes the payment of penance. With a quarter and two dimes in the pocket of her coat, the woman starts out for church on foot. The Jesuit church is just down the road, and it is a cold day in February. The woman has no transportation and little means of support. A drunken beggar accosts her along the way, asking for a handout. The quarter is for the poor box. The two dimes are for the candle offering. One is for the memory of her mother, the other for two friends held captive in China. Considering the circumstances for which she has planned to make her offerings, she leaves the quarter and one of the dimes with the beggar man.

The woman enters the church. Judging...