atrocious hopes, we accompany Percival to the hovel occupied by Becky
Carruthers.

On following Beck into the room she rented, Percival was greatly
surprised to find, seated comfortably on the only chair to be seen, no
less a person than the worthy Mrs. Mivers. This good lady in her
spinster days had earned her own bread by hard work. She had captivated
Mr. Mivers when but a simple housemaid in the service of one of his
relations. And while this humble condition in her earlier life may
account for much in her language and manners which is nowadays
inconsonant with the breeding and education that characterize the wives
of opulent tradesmen, so perhaps the remembrance of it made her unusually
susceptible to the duties of charity. For there is no class of society
more prone to pity and relieve the poor than females in domestic service;
and this virtue Mrs. Mivers had not laid aside, as many do, as soon as
she was in a condition to practise it with effect. Mrs. Mivers blushed
scarlet on being detected in her visit of kindness, and hastened to
excuse herself by the information that she belonged to a society of
ladies for "The Bettering the Condition of the Poor," and that having
just been informed of Mrs. Becky's destitute state, she had looked in to
recommend her--a ventilator!

"It is quite shocking to see how little the poor attends to the proper
wentilating their houses. No wonder there's so much typus about!" said
Mrs. Mivers. "And for one-and-sixpence we can introduce a stream of h-
air that goes up the chimbly, and carries away all that it finds!".

"I 'umbly thank you, marm," said the poor bundle of rags that went by the
name of "Becky," as with some difficulty she contrived to stand in the
presence of the benevolent visitor; "but I am much afeard that the h-air