things we blame on God are really up to us? He's handed over His power
for us to do things, and we haven't seen it that way; so the things go
undone and God is charged with the consequences."

"I wish I could believe that!" said Wittemore.

"You can! When you really want to, enough, you will! Come on, let's get
that prayer down to the old lady! I'm sort of an amateur yet, but I'll
do my best."

They went out into the mist and murk of a spring thaw. Wittemore never
forgot that night's experience--the prayer, and the walk home again
through the fog. The old woman died at dawning.

Courtland spent much time thinking about Gila these days. His whole soul
was wrapped up in the desire that she might understand. He was longing
for her; idealizing her; thinking of her in her innocent beauty, her
charming ways; wondering how she would meet him the next time, what he
should say to her; living upon her brief, alluring notes that came to
him from time to time like fitful rose petals blown from a garden where
he longed to be; but yet in a way it was a relief to have her gone until
he could settle the great perplexity that was in his mind concerning
her.

Gila prolonged her absence by a trip South with her father, and so it
was several weeks before Courtland saw her again.

There seemed to be a settled sadness over his soul when he prayed about
her, and when at last she returned and summoned him to her he was no
nearer a solution of his difficulty than when he had last left her.

The hour before he went to her he spent in Stephen's room, turning over
the leaves of Stephen's Bible. When he rose at last to go he turned
again to this verse which had caught his eye among the marked verses
that were always so interesting to him because they seemed to have been
landmarks in Stephen's life:

My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

It almost startled him, so well did it seem to suit his need. He read on
a few verses:

And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry
us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known that I and my
people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou
goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and my people,
from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

Wonderful words those, implying a close relationship that shut out to a
certain extent all others who were not one with that Presence. He wished
he knew what it all meant!