‘The Bible!’ exclaimed Barbara. She was pleased. He certainly was sincere in his repentance. He would not have gone away to a private spot to read the sacred volume unless he were in earnest.
‘Let us sit down, Barbie!’ said Eve. ‘Don’t run away, Mr. Jasper.’
‘As Mr. Jasper was reading, and you asked him to give you something from the book, I will join in the request.’
‘I thought it was perhaps—Byron,’ said Eve.
‘As it is not Byron, but something better, we shall be all the better satisfied to have it read to us,’ said Barbara.
‘Well, then, some of the story part, please,’ asked Eve, screwing up her mouth, ‘and not much of it.’
‘I should prefer a Psalm,’ said Barbara; ‘or a chapter from one of the Epistles.’
‘I do not know what to read,’ Jasper said smiling, ‘as each of you asks for something different.’
‘I have an idea,’ exclaimed Eve. ‘He shall hold the book shut. I will close my eyes and open the volume at hap-hazard, and point with my finger. He shall read that, and we can conjure from it, or guess our characters, or read our fate. Then you shall do the same. Will that please you?’
‘I do not know about guessing characters and reading our fate; our characters we know by introspection, and the future is hidden from our eyes by the same Hand that sent the book. But if you wish Mr. Jasper to be guided by this method what to read, I do not object.’