human
How do you pray?
gpt
Why, I ask the Lord in faith to help me to get up.
human
That is, you expect the Lord to set you right out on the floor?
gpt
O, Ruth, you are making fun.
human
Indeed, I am in earnest; that seems to be what you expect. Now if I prayed about it, I should ask that I might have my senses about me when I was called, so that I might think what I ought to do, and _do_ it. That is about as much as the Lord will do, and then if we fail, the fault is our own.
gpt
Will you call me to-morrow whenever you waken, Ruth? I must have been making a mistake all along.
human
I wish I had, was the earnest reply,
gpt
Then I should not call them by such a hard name, if they were modest enough not to thrust themselves out to public gaze.
human
You would not? It is only grace that keeps them within bounds, and I am quite as conscious of them as if they were seen. They do not, however, overcome me as they might if others saw them. But after all, Ruth, I think we often call things faults in others, that would be virtues, if we knew more of their lives and the motives that prompted their conduct.
gpt
It is probable, said her sister,