"Don't," said she. "Let me cry! Oh, it is such a blessed relief!"
Letty knelt on the floor beside her cousin's couch, speaking all the tender and endearing words she could think of, repeating promises of Scripture and broken sentences of prayers, while Agnes wept on as though her tears would never cease.
"Oh, it is such a comfort to cry!" said she, at last. "Do you know, Letty, I have hardly shed one tear since my baby died! My tears seemed all turned to fire."
"How you have suffered!" said Letty. "But, Agnes, the worst may be over now, if you will. Do but turn to God and cast your heavy burden on him. He will not reject you. He will sustain and comfort you."
"I cannot believe it," said Agnes; "and yet, when I see you here by me, Letty, and remember how you were treated the last time you were in this house, it does not seem so very incredible. But don't deceive me with vain hopes, Letty."
"I would not do so for the world," said Letty, earnestly. "I do not give you one promise or invitation that is not in the Bible. But, as truly as I know that you are alive, I know that God is ready and willing to receive you, if you are willing and repent. You need not be in this despair one moment longer. Only pray for yourself; only ask him, from the bottom of your heart, to have mercy on you and receive you through Jesus Christ,—and then believe."
"How could I break off my present life?" asked Agnes.
"God will open a way for you," replied Letty. "He will make your path plain before your face, even though it be beset with thorns and briers. Oh, Agnes, don't grieve the Holy Spirit by rejecting him again! Don't harden your heart, Agnes! Think of your child in heaven, and of your mother—"
"Hush, Letty!" exclaimed Agnes. "You bring my sins to remembrance when you talk of mother. I was a wicked and undutiful child. I believe she might have lived till this time if she had had decent care; but I let her work herself to death for me, and disregarded her complaints. Oh, it can never be that such a creature as I can be forgiven! It is only mocking God to ask it,—only adding awful presumption to my other sins!"
"It would indeed be awful presumption in any of us to come to God as we do, if he had not expressly invited us,—if he did not call us individually to come," said Letty; "but, since he does, the presumption is in doubting his word and refusing to believe his promises."