despair at the unmannerly rudeness of the children, the oldest a stout,
vulgar-looking boy, who went racing and rummaging about the house from the
garret to the cellar. For a long time after her exciting interview with Mr.
Scragg, she sat weeping and trembling in her own room, with Edith by her
side, who sought earnestly to comfort and encourage her.

"Oh, Edith!" she sobbed, "to think that we should be humbled to this!"

"Necessity has forced us into our present unhappy position, mother,"
replied Edith. "Let us meet its difficulties with as brave hearts as
possible."

"I shall never be able to treat that dreadful man with even common
civility," said Mrs. Darlington.

"We have accepted him as our guest, mother, and it will be our duty to make
all as pleasant and comfortable as possible. We will have to bear much, I
see--much beyond what I had anticipated."

Mrs. Darlington sighed deeply as she replied--

"Yes, yes, Edith. Ah, the thought makes me miserable!"

"No more of that sweet drawing together in our own dear home circle,"
remarked Edith, sadly. "Henceforth we are to bear the constant presence and
intrusion of strangers, with whom we have few or no sentiments in common.
We open our house and take in the ignorant, the selfish, the vulgar, and
feed them for a certain price! Does not the thought bring a feeling of
painful humiliation? What can pay for all this? Ah me! The anticipation had
in it not a glimpse of what we have found in our brief experience. Except