“I do not understand.”
“I mean only this, dear child; I do want things, but I want God’s will most of all.”
“Sometimes I think I do, and then I know that I do not. Do you think,” lowering her voice and speaking more slowly, “that He ever deceives any body?”
“He sometimes, oftentimes, allows them to be deceived,—is that what you mean?”
“He does not do it.”
“No, but He allows others to do it.”
“Not—when—they pray—about it and ask what they may do—would He let somebody who prayed be deceived?”
Miss Jewett was removing her gloves. She smoothed out each finger and thumb before she spoke, and laid them on the window-sill.
“I have been trying to think—oh, now, I know! Do you not remember one whom He permitted to be deceived after asking His counsel?”
“No. I thought the thing impossible. I do not see how such a thing can be.”