having extracted a promise that there should be no tricks nor
teasing, a pledge honourably kept.

Anne did not like the prospect of the interview. "Oh, ma'am, don't
leave me alone with him!" she said. "Do you know what he did to
Mistress Martha Browning, his own cousin, you know, who lives at
Emsworth with her aunt? He put a horsehair slily round her glass of
wine, and tipped it over her best gray taffeta, and her aunt whipped
her for the stain. She never would say it was his doing, and yet he
goes on teasing her the same as ever, though his brother Oliver
found it out, and thrashed him for it: you know Oliver is to marry
Mistress Martha."

"My dear child, where did you hear all this?" asked Mrs. Woodford,
rather overwhelmed with this flood of gossip from her usually quiet
daughter.

"Lucy told me, mamma. She heard it from Sedley, who says he does
not wonder at any one serving out Martha Browning, for she is as
ugly as sin."

"Hush, hush, Anne! Such sayings do not become a young maid. This
poor lad has scarce known kindness. Every one's hand has been
against him, and so his hand has been against every one. I want my
little daughter to be brave enough not to pain and anger him by
shrinking from him as if he were not like other people. We must
teach him to be happy before we can teach him to be good."

"Madam, I will try," said the child, with a great gulp; "only if you
would be pleased not to leave me alone with him the first time!"