llar. 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 Mr. and Mrs. Ring, there isn't a lady nor gentleman in the
house. That Mason is so rudely familiar that I cannot bear to come near
him. He's making himself quite intimate with Henry already, and I don't
like to see it."

"Nor do I," replied Mrs. Darlington. "Henry's been out with him twice
to the theatre already."

"I'm afraid of his influence over Henry. He's not the kind of a
companion he ought to choose," said Edith. "And then Mr. Barling is
with Miriam in the parlour almost every evening. He asks her to sing,
and she says she doesn't like to refuse."

The mother sighed deeply. While they were conversing, a servant came to
their room to say that Mr. Ring was in the parlour, and wished to speak
with Mrs. Darlington. It was late in the afternoon of the day on which
the Scraggs had made their appearance.

With a presentiment of trouble, Mrs. Darlington went down to the
parlour.

"Madam," said Mr. Ring, as soon as she entered, speaking in a firm
voice, "I find that my wife has been grossly insulted by a fellow whose
family you have taken into your house. Now they must leave here, or we
will, and that fo