just how far
apart they were. It really needed but a suggestion to make her feel
doubly alert--on the _qui vive_, indeed--to have her feelings hurt.
So of course they were _hurt_.

In point of fact, there is nothing easier to accomplish in this
jarring world than to get your feelings injured. If you are bent on
being slighted there is no manner of difficulty in finding people who
apparently "live and move and breathe" for no other purpose than to
slight you. And as often as you think about them, and dwell on their
doings, they increase in number. A new name is added to the list
every time you think it over; and the fair probability is that every
single person you meet on that day when you have just gone over your
troubles will say or do, or leave unsaid or undone, that which will
cruelly hurt you. I tell you, dear friend, it becomes you to keep
those feelings of yours hidden under lock and key, out of sight and
memory of anyone but your loving Lord, if you don't want them _hurt_
every hour in the day.

CHAPTER IV.

SOME PEOPLE WHO WERE FALSE FRIENDS.

Did a woman ever start out, I wonder, with the spirit of turmoil and
unrest about her, that she did not find helpers? Especially if she be
one of a large congregation she comes in contact with some heedless
ones--some malicious ones--some who are led into mischief by their
undisciplined tongues--some who have personal grievances. And there
are always some people in every community who stand all ready to be
led by the last brain with which they come in contact; or, if not
that, they are sure to think exactly as Dr. Jones and Judge Tinker
and Prof. Bolus do, without reason as to why or wherefore. This class
is very easily managed. A little care, a judicious repetition of a
sentence which fell from the doctor's or the judge's or the
professor's lips, and which might have meant anything or _nothing_,
by the slightest possible changes of emphasis, can be made to mean a
little or a great deal. It wasn't slow work either--not half so slow
as it would have been to attempt the building up of someone's
reputation; by reason of the law of gravitation the natural tendency
is downward, so prevalent in human nature, and by reason of the
intense delight which that wise and wily helper, Satan, has in a
_fuss_ of any sort. Do Mrs. Dr. Matthews the justice of understanding
that she didn't in the least comprehend what she was about; that is,
not the magnitude of it. She only k