"It can never be right to lie. Ask God to make you a way of escape, if so it be." "What way?" "Leave that to Him." Mrs Dorothy's little clock struck four. "I think, if you please, Mrs Gatty," said Phoebe's hitherto silent voice, "that Madam will be looking for us." "Yes, I guess she will," answered Gatty, rising, and courtesying. "I thank you, Mrs Dolly. You have given me a ray of hope--if 'twill not die away." Mrs Dorothy drew the girl to her, and kissed her cheek. "Christ cannot die, my child," she replied. "And Christ's love is deathless as Himself. `Death hath no more dominion over Him.' And He saith to His own, `Because I live, ye shall live also.'" "It should be a better life than this," said Gatty, with a sigh. "This is not the Christian's life, my dear. `His life is hid with Christ in God.' 'Tis not left in his own hands to keep; he would soon lose it, if it were. Farewell, dear child; and may the Lord keep thee!" Gatty looked up suddenly. "Tell me what to say to Him." Mrs Dorothy scarcely hesitated a moment. "`Teach me to do Thy will,'" she answered. "That holds everything. You cannot do His will unless you are one of His redeemed. He must save you, and hold you up, and guide you to glory, if you do His will--not because you do it, for the salvation cometh first; but without the one, there cannot be the other. And he that doeth the will of God soon learns to love it, better than any mortal thing. `Oh, how love I Thy law!' saith David. `There is nothing on earth that I desire in comparison of Thee.'" She kissed both the girls again, and they went away. CHAPTER SIX. TRAPS LAID FOR RHODA. "La souveraine habilite consiste a bien connoitre le prix des choses." _La Rochefoucauld_. There was an earnest, wistful, far-away look in Gatty's eyes, as though some treasure-house had been opened to her, the existence of which she had never previously suspected; but neither she nor Phoebe said a word to each other as they crossed the Park, and went up the wide white steps of the Abbey. "Where on earth have you been, you gadabouts?" came in Rhoda's voice from the interior of the hall. "Oh, but I've such a jolly piece of news for you! Molly and me heard it from Madam. Guess what it is." Rhoda's grammar was more free and easy than correct at all times; and Phoebe could not help thinking that in that respect, as in others, she had perceptibly deteriorated by contact with Molly. "I don't care to hear it, thank you," said Gatty, rather hastily, walking straight upstairs. "Oh, don't you, Mrs Prim?" demanded Rhoda. "Well, it doesn't concern you much. Now, Phoebe, guess!" Phoebe felt very little in tune for the sort of amusement usually patronised by Rhoda. But she set herself to gratify that rather exacting young lady. "I don't guess things well," she said. "Is one of your aunts coming?"