the company of boys who made him ashamed of being
ordered by his mother; and there was a jaunty careless style about all
his ways of talking and moving, that shewed there was something wrong
about him--he scorned Ellen, and was as saucy as he dared even to his
mother; and though Mr. Cope found him better instructed than most of his
scholars, he saw him quite as idle, as restless at church, and as ready
to whisper and grin at improper times, as many who had never been trained
like him.

One August Sunday afternoon, Mrs. King was with Alfred while Ellen was at
church. He was lying on his couch, very uncomfortable and fretful, when
to the surprise of both, a knock was heard at the door. Mrs. King looked
out of the window, and a smart, hard-looking, pigeon's-neck silk bonnet
at once nodded to her, and a voice said, 'I've come over to see you,
Cousin King, if you'll come down and let me in. I knew I should find you
at home.'

'Betsey Hardman!' exclaimed Alfred, in dismay; 'you won't let her come up
here, Mother?'

'Not if I can help it,' said Mrs. King, sighing. If there were a thing
she disliked above all others, it was Sunday visiting.

'You must help it, Mother,' said Alfred, in his most pettish tones. 'I
won't have her here, worrying with her voice like a hen cackling. Say
you won't let her come her!'

'Very well,' said Mrs. King, in doubt of her own powers, and in haste to
be decently civil.

'Say you won't,' repeated Alfred. 'Gadding about of a Sunday, and
leaving her old sick mother--more shame for her! Promise, Mother!'

He had nearly begun to cry at his mother's unkindness in running down-
stairs without making the promise, for, in fact, Mrs. King had too much
conscience to gain present quiet for any one by promises she might be
forced to break; and Betsey Hardman was only too well known.

Her mother was an aunt of Alfred's father, an old decrepit widow, nearly
bed-ridden, but pretty well to do, by being maintained chiefly by her
daughter, who made a good thing of taking in washing in the suburbs of
Elbury, and always had a girl or two under her. She had neither had the
education, nor the good training in service, that had fallen to Mrs.
King's lot; and her way of life did not lead to softening her tongue or
temper. Ellen called her vulgar, and though that is not a nice word to
use, she was coarse in her ways of talking and thinking, loud-voiced, and
unmannerly, although meaning to be very good-n