"I thought it was to tell the Lord how we felt," said the old lady.
"That is a new view of it, certainly."
"I thought the words was to tell one how we had ought to feel!" said Charity. "There wouldn't more'n one in a dozen sing, mother, if you had your way; and then we should have nice music!"
"I think it would be nice music," said the old lady, with a kind of sober tremble in her voice, which somehow touched Philip. The ring of truth was there, at any rate.
"Could the world be managed," he said, with very gentle deference; "could the world be managed on such principles of truth and purity? Must we not take people as we find them?"
"Those are the Lord's principles," said Mrs. Armadale.
"Yes, but you know how the world is. Must we not, a little, as I said, take people as we find them?"
"The Lord won't do that," said the old lady. "He will either make them better, or he will cast them away."
"But we? We must deal with things as they are."
"How are you goin' to deal with 'em?"