‘What is it?’ asked Barbara, and looked also.
Behold! the golden flower of Barbara was shining on the pink petal of Eve’s rose.
‘We have chosen the same place. Now, Barbie, what do you say to this? Is it a chance, or are we going to learn our fate, which is bound up together, from the passage Mr. Jasper is about to read?’
‘There is no mystery in the matter,’ said Barbara quietly; ‘you did not turn the book when you gave it to me, and it naturally opened where your flower lay.’
‘Go on, Mr. Jasper,’ exhorted Eve. But the young man seemed ill-disposed to obey.
‘Yes,’ said Barbara; ‘begin. We are ready.’
Then Jasper began to read:—
‘Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east. And he looked, and behold a well in a field, and, lo, there were flocks of sheep lying by it.’
‘I am glad we are going to have this story,’ said Eve; ‘I like it. It is a pretty one. Jacob came to that house of Laban just as you, Mr. Babb, have come to Morwell.’
Jasper read on:—