A little shiver quivered through Abbie’s frame as she answered: 

“I hope I should have strength to do what I thought right; and I believe I should.”

“Yes, you think so now,” persisted Ester, “because there is no danger of any such trial; but I tell you I don’t believe, if you were brought to the test, that you would do any such thing.”

Abbie’s tone in reply was very humble.

“Perhaps not—­I might miserably fail; and yet, Ester, He has said, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’”

Then, after a little silence, the bright look returned to her face as she added: 

“I am very glad that I am not to be tried in that furnace; and do you know, Ester, I never believed in making myself a martyr to what might have been, or even what may be in the future; ’sufficient unto the day’ is my motto.  If it should ever be my duty to burn at the stake, I believe I should go to my Savior and plead for the ‘sufficient grace;’ but as long as I have no such known trial before me, I don’t know why I should be asking for what I do not need, or grow unhappy over improbabilities, though I do pray every day to be prepared for whatever the future has for me.”

Then the talk drifted back again to the various details connected with the wedding, until suddenly Abbie came to her feet with a spring.

“Why, Ester!” she exclaimed penitently, “What a thoughtless wretch I am!  Here have I been chattering you fairly into midnight, without a thought of your tired body and brain.  This session must adjourn immediately.  Shall you and I have prayers together to-night?  Will it seem homelike to you?  Can you play I am Sadie for just a little while?”

“I should like it,” Ester answered faintly.

“Shall I read, as you are so weary?” and, without waiting for a reply, she unclasped the lids of her little Bible.  “Are you reading the Bible by course?  Where do you like best to read, for devotional reading I mean?”

“I don’t know that I have any choice?” Ester’s voice was fainter still.

“Haven’t you?  I have my special verses that I turn to in my various needs.  Where are you and Sadie reading?”

“No where,” said Ester desperately.

Abbie’s face expressed only innocent surprise

“Don’t you read together?  You are roommates, aren’t you?  Now I always thought it would be so delightful to have a nice little time, like family worship, in one’s own room.”

“Sadie doesn’t care anything about these things, she isn’t a Christian,” Ester said at length.

“Oh, dear! isn’t she?” What a very sad and troubled tone it was in which Abbie spoke.  “Then you know something of my anxiety; and yet it is different.  She is younger than you, and you can have her so much under your influence.  At least it seems different to me.  How prone we are to consider our own anxieties peculiarly trying.”

Ester never remembered giving a half hour’s anxious thought to this which was supposed to be an anxiety with her in all her life; but she did not say so, and Abbie continued:  “Who is your particular Christian friend, then?”