“Do you think He’ll send him back to me?”
“He is here now. He has never left you.”
Miss Pipkin looked dazed, then puzzled, 181 and finally provoked. “I didn’t think you’d trifle, or I’d never told you.”
“Indeed, I’m not trifling.”
“Then, what happened last night has gone to your head, poor thing! I’d ought to have known better than to have troubled you with my sorrows. You’ve got all you ought to carry. Poor thing!”
She slowly pushed her chair from the table, eyeing the minister as though expecting signs of an outbreak. But he motioned her back into her chair with a calmness that reassured her.
“I don’t quite understand your meaning, I guess,” she said.
“And it is quite apparent that I didn’t understand yours. You were speaking of the Spirit of God leaving you, and I said He was right here with you–––”
“Now, ain’t I a caution to saints!” broke in Miss Pipkin. “I did mix you up awful, didn’t I? What I was asking you about was if you thought God would send back my Adoniah Phillips. He–––Why, Mr. McGowan, what’s the matter now?”