treacherous; wherever,
friendship being the ostensible bond, inquiry outruns regard, it is
treachery--an endeavour to grasp more than the friend would knowingly
give.

They went for a little walk in the grounds; as they returned they met
Donal going out with Davie. Arctura and Donal passed with a bow and a
friendly smile; Davie stopped and spoke to the ladies, then bounded
after his friend.

"Have you attended the scripture-lesson regularly?" asked Miss
Carmichael.

"Yes; I have been absent only once, I think, since you left," replied
Arctura.

"Good, my dear! You have not been leaving your lamb to the wolf!"

"I begin to doubt if he be a wolf."

"Ah! does he wear his sheepskin so well? Are you sure he is not
plotting to devour sheep and shepherd together?" said Miss Carmichael,
with an open glance of search.

"Don't you think," suggested Arctura, "when you are not able to say
anything, it would be better not to be present? Your silence looks like
agreement."

"But you can always protest! You can assert he is all wrong. You can
say you do not in the least agree with him!"

"But what if you are not sure that you do not agree with him?"

"I thought as much!" said Miss Carmichael to herself. "I might have
foreseen this!"--Here she spoke.--"If you are not sure you do agree,
you can say, 'I can't say I agree with you!' It is always safer to
admit little than much."

"I do not quite follow you. But speaking of little and much, I am sure
I want a great deal more than I know yet to save me. I have never yet
heard what seems enough."

"Is that to say God has not done his part?"

"No; it is only to say that I hope he has done more than I have yet
heard."

"More than send his son to die for your sins?"

"More than you say that means."

"You have but to believe Christ did so."

"I don't know that he died for my sins."

"He died for the sins of the whole world."

"Then I must be saved!"

"Yes, if you believe that he made atonement for your sins."

"Then I cannot be saved except I believe that I shall be saved. And I
cannot believe I shall be saved until I know I shall be saved!"

"You are cavilling, Arctura! Ah, this is what you have been learning of
Mr. Grant! I ought not to have gone away!"

"Nothing of the sort!" said Arctura, drawing herself up a little. "I am
sorry if I have said anything wrong; but really I can get hold of
nothing! I feel sometimes as if I should go out of my mind."

"Arctura,