sure, very happy
If--if you would have the kindness to come round, yes, round here,
madam, and--and to excuse our poor sitting-room. Thank you, thank you.
Harriet, my dear, Miss Rutherford has had the great, the very great,
goodness to visit you--to visit you personally--yes. I will leave you,
if--if you please--h'm, yes."

He shuffled away in the same distressingly nervous manner, and closed
the door behind him. The schoolmistress found herself in a dark little
parlour, which smelt even more of drugs than the shop itself. The
window looked out into a dirty back-yard, and was almost concealed with
heavy red curtains. As the eyes got accustomed to the dimness, one
observed that the floor was covered with very old oil-cloth, and that
the articles of furniture were few, only the most indispensable, and
all very shabby. Everything seemed to be dusty and musty. The only
approach to an ornament was a framed diploma hanging over the
mantelpiece, certifying that John Alfred Smales was a duly qualified
pharmaceutical chemist. A low fire burned in the grate, and before it,
in a chair which would probably have claimed the title of easy, sat the
girl Harriet Smales, her head in bandages.

She received Miss Rutherford rather sulkily, and as she moved, groaned
in a way which did not seem the genuine utterance of pain. After a few
sympathetic remarks, the teacher began to touch upon the real object of
her visit.

"I have no intention of blaming you, Harriet; I should not speak of
this at all, if it were not necessary. But I must ask you plainly what
reason you had for speaking of Ida Starr's mother as they say you did.
Why did you say she was a bad woman?"

"It's only what she is," returned Harriet sullenly, and with much
inward venom.

"What do you mean by that? Who has told you anything about her?"

Only after some little questioning the fact was elicited that Harriet
owed her ideas on the subject to a servant girl in the house, whose
name was Sarah.

"What does Sarah say, then?" asked Miss Rutherford.

"She says she isn't respectable, and that she goes about with men, and
she's only a common street-woman," answered the girl, speaking
evidently with a very clear understanding of what these accusations
meant. The schoolmistress looked away with a rather shocked expression,
and thought a little before speaking again.

"Well, that's all I wanted to ask you, Harriet," she said. "I won't
blame you, but I trust you will do as