as just thinking whether my going away would make the
least bit of difference in the world to you?" she said, at last.

There was no reply to be made to this, for Christie thought neither the
words nor the manner quite kind, after all the pleasant hours they had
passed together. She never could have guessed the thoughts that were in
Gertrude's mind in the silence that followed. She was saying to
herself, almost with tears, how gladly she would change places with
Christie, who was sitting there as quietly as if no change of time or
place could make her unhappy. For her discontent with herself had by no
means passed away. It had rather deepened as her study of the Bible
became more earnest, and the strong, pure, unselfish life of which she
had now and then caught glimpses seemed more than ever beyond her power
to attain. When she tried most, it seemed to her that she failed most;
and the disgust which she felt on account of her daily failures had been
gradually deepening into a sense of sinfulness that would not be
banished. She strove to banish it. She was indignant with herself
because of her unhappiness, but she struggled vainly to cast it off.
And when to this was added the sad prospect of leaving home, it was more
than she could bear.

She had come up-stairs that night with a vague desire to speak to
Christie about her troubles, and she had been trying to find suitable
words, when Christie spoke. Her ungracious reply did not make a
beginning any easier. It was a long time before either of them said
another word, and it was Christie who spoke first.

"Maybe, after all, you will like school better than you expect," she
said. "Things hardly ever turn out with us as we fear."

"Well, perhaps so. I must just take things as they come, I suppose."

The vexation had not all gone yet, Christie thought, by her tone; so she
said no more. In a little while she was quite startled by Miss
Gertrude's voice, it was so changed, as she said:

"All day long this has been running in my mind: `Whosoever drinketh of
the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.' What does it
mean?"

"Jesus said it to the woman at the well," said Christie. And she added:
"`But the water that I shall give him shall be in him as a well of water
springing up to everlasting life.'"

"What does it mean, do you think--`shall never thirst'?"

Christie hesitated. Of late their talks had not always been pleasant.
Gertrude's vexed spir