Lovejoy. She felt instinctively that the woman was not a lady. Susy was
too young to reason about the matter; but she was quite sure her own
mother was a model of good manners; and never, never had she known her
mother to raise her voice to such a high key, or speak such angry words!

Mrs. Lovejoy said a great many things which were both severe and unjust;
but Susy managed to keep up a respectful manner, as her mother had
directed. Mrs. Lovejoy was disappointed. She had expected Susy would
quail before her presence and make the most humble confessions.

"I always knew," cried Mrs. Lovejoy, becoming more and more
exasperated,--"I always knew Mrs. Parlin held her head pretty high! She
is a proud, stuck-up woman, your mother is; she has taught you to look
down on my little girl! O, yes, I understand the whole story! You're a
beautiful family for neighbors!"

Poor Susy was fairly bewildered.

"Now you may go home as straight as you can go! But remember one thing:
never, while we live in this city, shall my daughter Annie darken your
doors again!"

Susy walked home with downcast head and overflowing eyes. Her heart was
very heavy, for she felt she had been disgraced for life, and could
never be respected any more. Here was a trial so terrible that it caused
the death of little Dandy to seem almost a trifle by comparison.

It was strange, Susy thought, how people could live through such severe
troubles as had fallen to her lot to-day. She was a little girl of quick
and sensitive feelings, and a sharp word always wounded her more than a