"To be sure. As I was telling Agnes, you know, that's what it is for. But there was a good while, when I was young,—about Gatty's age,—that I was very fond of reading; and the Bible was almost the only book we had. My parents died when I was a baby, and left me to my grandmother's care. She was old and almost blind; and I used to read the Bible to her over and over again, till I came to know it almost by heart; and I can repeat whole chapters. Grandmother used to point out these very things to me,—how that nothing ever did or could happen to us that we did not find something just to match it in the Bible. So I got into the habit of it, you see."
"I am sure it is an excellent habit," said Letty. "Aunt Eunice was just so. The Bible was her daily food. Didn't I hear our gate shut?"
The new-comers were Agnes and Joseph, who had heard the news down-town, and now came to sympathize with their cousins in their trouble. Agnes, as usual, began on the wrong tack. Priding herself on her tact and management, she was sure to say the wrong thing, or to say the right thing in the wrong place, simply because she had no capacity for entering into the feelings of other people.
"How vexed you must be, Letty! If John had only taken your advice, all this would not have happened. But I believe all men are alike about that: they would rather be influenced by anybody else than their own wives."
"You are much mistaken, Agnes," said Letty, with more spirit, perhaps, than was absolutely called for. "I gave no advice on the subject, simply because I knew nothing about the matter, one way or the other. John said he would do as I wished; but I preferred to leave it to him. He acted for the best, however it has turned out; and that is all any one can do."
"Then you didn't say, 'I told you so'?" said Joe, with a tone of great interest.
"Of course not! How should I? I did not tell him so; and, even if I had, I should not be apt to cast it up to him, now that he is in trouble."
Joe clapped his hands. "There, Agnes! You have lost your bet. You will have to hand over. I made a bet with Aggy that you wouldn't say so, and she bet you would. You have lost your new dress this time, Aggy."
"I will thank you not to make me the subject of any more bets," said Letty, good-humouredly. "I don't believe in betting: it is entirely against my principles."
"Well, I won't," said Joe. "But this was too good. But, Letty, I am very sorry about this matter. Can nothing be done? Is it a dead loss?"