“Confidence that he will grant your wishes?”
“Yes, if they be right, or that if he grant them not, then confidence that the refusal is best.”
“Have you that confidence, Miriam?”
“Oh aunt, oh my mother, do not tempt me. I would believe; my heart tells me that miracles such as his, could only be performed to attest a momentous truth. But do not tempt me, the body of Reuben is scarcely passed, in him my heart, my affections, my hope were centered—and he is taken from me. Why? is it good for me to be afflicted?”
“Could the Master have saved his life, my child?”
“Did he not yesterday save the life of the Centurion’s servant at Capernaum,” answered Salathiel, struck with the coincidence of the woman’s question with the recent fact.
“Did you ask him, Miriam?”
“I saw him not, and if I had seen him, what am I to him?”
“If you had asked him, might he not have done it?”
“I believe, aunt; I believe, Salathiel, that he could have saved the life of Reuben.”