before her guests. Sometimes certain of the boarders complained, and it
generally happened that rudeness accompanied the complaint. The sense of
pain that attended this was always most acute, for it was accompanied by
deep humiliation and a feeling of helplessness. Moreover, during these
first three months, Mr. and Mrs. Grimes had left the house without paying
their board for five weeks, thus throwing her into a loss of forty dollars.

At the beginning of this experiment, after completing the furniture of her
house, Mrs. Darlington had about three hundred dollars. When the quarter's
bill for rent was paid, she had only a hundred and fifty dollars left.
Thus, instead of making anything by boarders, so far, she had sunk a
hundred and fifty dollars. This fact disheartened her dreadfully. Then, the
effect upon almost every member of her family had been bad. Harry was no
longer the thoughtful, affectionate, innocent-minded young man of former
days. Mason and Barling had introduced him into gay company, and,
fascinated with a new and more exciting kind of life, he was fast forming
associations and acquiring habits of a dangerous character. It was rare
that he spent an evening at home; and, instead of being of any assistance
to his mother, was constantly making demands on her for money. The pain all
this occasioned Mrs. Darlington was of the most distressing character.
Since the children of Mr. and Mrs. Scragg came into the house, Edward and
Ellen, who had heretofore been under the constant care and instruction of
their mother, left almost entirely to themselves, associated constantly
with these children, and learned from them to be rude, vulgar, and, in some
things, even vicious. And Miriam had become apparently so much interested
in Mr. Burton, who was constantly attentive to her, that both Mrs.
Darlington and Edith became anxious on her account. Burton was an entire
stranger to them all, and there were many things about him that appeared
strange, if not wrong.