"You can!" she cried; "but oh, Eric, I can't pray! I can't, indeed!" she reiterated, stressfully.
"Why not?" he asked, considerably surprised.
"Because I'm too wicked. Oh, you don't know what a naughty, selfish wretch I've been!"
"Well, don't call yourself names," he said, more and more astonished, for Celia in this frame of mind was a new study for him. "I daresay you've been all you say," he remarked, after a few minutes' reflection, "but that's no reason why you shouldn't pray for poor Joy."
"I don't believe God would listen to my prayers."
"Oh, you know better than that!"
"I wish I'd never gone to stay with the Tillotsons!" Celia cried, passionately.
"Why? You had a good time, hadn't you? And you and Lulu Tillotson are such great chums."
"Humph! I don't know about that," Celia said, a trifle dubiously. "Lulu is very fond of dictating to people," she continued, in an explanatory tone, "and she's very selfish."
Eric could not help smiling on hearing this; but before he had time to reply the door opened, and Mrs. Mallock entered. She had brought a message from her master to the effect that Dr. Forbes had been to see him, and that he had reported Joy to be lying in exactly the same condition.