anything to do with it; I'd rather stay as I am," was the sincere, if
not very polite, answer. And then Bertie's conscience awoke, and she
began to see what harm she was doing. She was very uneasy all the rest
of the evening, and still more so when, at its close, Miss Eunice asked
her to stop a few moments, as she had something to say to her.

Miss Eunice had overheard the conversation we have recorded, and had
noted the cross, spiteful expression of the girl's face, and had grieved
much as she saw her Saviour thus "wounded in the house of his friends."
She spoke seriously to Bertie so soon as they were alone, and found the
latter already repentant and quite willing to acknowledge her fault.

"But what am I to do, Miss Eunice? I _am_ jealous, and I _do_ feel
hateful sometimes. I don't want to feel so, but I can't help it. If I
didn't speak, I should feel it all the same."

"But, my dear, you have promised, in the most solemn way, to renounce
'the devil and all his works.' Pride, malice, envy, jealousy are
emphatically works of the devil."

"I know, Miss Eunice; and I thought it would be all taken away. The
minister in the city told us that Jesus is 'the Lamb of God, who taketh
away the sins of the world.' I thought if I came to him he would take
mine away."

"So he has, so he will. Try to understand me. When he hung upon the
cross he bore the penalty due to the sins of the whole world, and of
course to yours. In that sense he has already taken them away. But in
another sense, that of your daily life, your _character_, he will take
the evil of that away just as fast as you will let him."

"Let him? How do you mean? I am sure I want to be good."

"Yes, in a lump, altogether, you want to be good, very good; but without
any trouble or self-denial. You didn't want to keep from saying those
spiteful things about Tessa and Katie a little while ago, or he would
have helped you do it. You didn't want the jealous, envious feelings
taken out of your heart _just then_, or he would have taken them."

"How, Miss Eunice?"

"_Whatsoever_ you ask in prayer, believing, ye _shall_ receive," said
she.

"But do you mean I ought to have kneeled down to pray then, just that
moment, before all the girls?"

"It is not necessary always to kneel down when we pray; though it is
best to do so when we can. There are often times when our work would
suffer, or when we are so surrounded by others that it would be
impossible. But a few earn