you all, in your heart-rending afflictions, should bow so
meekly beneath God's chastening rod, and put your shoulders to the
wheel."

Bea opened the sitting-room door in fear and trembling, and blinded by
the spring sunshine, Miss Strong walked into the dark room, in her
girlish, hasty way, and immediately stumbled over a footstool, and
landed at full length on the lounge, with such force that she dropped
her beaded reticule, and knocked her bonnet off.

"Oh, I am so sorry," cried Bea, running to pick up the things, and
return them to the startled and scarlet-faced spinster. "I don't know
why Kittie shut the blinds, she oughtn't to."

"No, I should say she hadn't, I should, indeed," returned Miss Strong,
putting on her bonnet with a jerk, and snapping her reticule. "It's a
sinful shame, the way some people keep their houses dark as dungeons, to
hide dirt and dust. I have heard that you were neat housekeepers, but I
can't help having my opinion of people who shut out every speck of
light, and trip up respectable people in this way."

Poor Bea's face burned and burned, and her heart throbbed faster as she
went to the window, to open the blinds, feeling that her reputation was
at stake, and that the first ray of light would kindle the faggots. Not
a speck of dust, from the ceiling down, would escape Miss Strong's eagle
eyes, and oh, how she would talk about it! Well, it was done; she threw
them open, and turned around in the calmness of despair. The glaring
sunshine came boldly in, and danced over the dusty table, over the top
of the piano, where you might have written your name, right under the
stove where the dirt lay thick, all around the corners, into Miss
Strong's scornful, roving eyes, and into Bea's burning face. Miss Strong
was angry. She never liked to be seen or heard under a disadvantage, and
she surely had received an unreconcilable insult just now. Besides, she
always went about seeking whom she might devour; she wore little
spit-curls all over her sallow, wrinkled forehead, had a hooked nose, a
long, sharp chin, a dried-apple mouth, and two fiercely bright eyes,
that looked clear through you, and plainly indicated that she thought
you all wrong, and at fault. Whenever she heard any one praised, she
immediately set about finding a flaw somewhere, and heralded it to the
world, as soon as found. She knew the Dering family were not as nice and
worthy of praise and sympathy, as people seemed to think, and she