f
the magic "we." She did not know how to set out to work to enlighten
him. In fact, she gave little thought to that part of the matter, but,
instead, fell to wondering what _was_ her idea--whether she did expect
to see results of any sort from the great gathering, and that being the
case, what she expected? "Spiritual results," she said to herself, and a
smile hovered over her face--what _were_ "spiritual results?" She knew
nothing about them. _Were_ there any such things? Eurie Mitchell, had
such a question occurred to her, would have asked it aloud at once and
enjoyed the sense of shocking her auditor. But Ruth did not like to
shock people; she was too much of a lady for that.

"What proportion of that class of people are here, do you think?" she
said, at last. "Are not the most of them professing Christians?"

"Precisely the question that interests me. I should really like to know.
I wonder if there is no way of coming at it? We might call for a rising
vote of all who loved the Lord; could we not? Wouldn't it be a beautiful
sight?--a great army standing up for him! I incline to your opinion that
the most of them are Christians, or at least a large proportion. But I
should very much like to know just how far this idea had touched the
popular heart, so as to call out those who are not on the Lord's side."

"They would simply have come for the fun of the thing, or the novelty of
it," she said, feeling amused again that almost of necessity she was
speaking of herself and using the pronoun "they." What would this
gentleman think if he should bring about that vote of which he spoke and
happen to see her among the seated ones?

"'A wolf in sheep's clothing' he would suppose me to be," she said to
herself. "But I am sure I have not told him that I belong to the 'we' at
all. If he chooses to assume things in that way, it is not my fault."

Apparently he answered both her expressed sentence and her thought:

"I do not think so," he said, earnestly. "I doubt if any have come
simply for fun or for novelty. There are better places in which to
gratify both tastes. I believe there is more actual interest in this
subject, even among the unconverted, than many seem to think. They are
reasonable beings. They must think, and many of them, no doubt, think to
good purpose. It may not be clear even to themselves for what they have
come; But I believe in some instances, to say the least, it will prove
to have been the call of the Spi