usly; "if Mrs.
Rushton knew of your impertinence she would send you away to-night."

It was thus that poor Hetty already began to make enemies, while much
requiring friends.

Next morning Mrs. Rushton and Hetty drove over to Wavertree to spend a
few days at the Hall, and on the way the lady stopped at Mrs. Kane's
door in the village, and bade Hetty alight and go in to pay a visit to
her old protectress. With Grant's taunts rankling in her memory and
Polly's reproaches fresh in her mind, Hetty got out of the carriage
reluctantly and went up to the door with a slow step.

Mrs. Kane was busy over a tub in her little wash-house, and came out
into the kitchen on hearing some one at the door. She wore a print
short-gown and petticoat, and a poky sun-bonnet; and her bare arms were
reeking with soap-suds. Hetty shrank from her a little, and could not
realize that she had ever belonged to a person with such an appearance
as this.

Poor Mrs. Kane looked at her young visitor with a stare of wonder, and
could never have guessed it was Hetty had she not espied Mrs. Rushton's
face through the open doorway, nodding pleasantly at her from the
carriage.

"Why, little miss, you're never my little Hetty?" cried the good woman,
wiping her hands in her apron.

"My name is Hetty Gray," said the little girl, holding up her pretty
head adorned with a handsome hat and feathers.

"And don't you remember me, my darling?" said Mrs. Kane, extending her
arms; "me that used to nurse you and take care of you like my own! Oh,
don't go to say you forget all about your poor old mammy!"

Hetty hung her head. "I don't remember you at all," she said in a low
trembling voice. Her pride was stung to the quick at the thought that
she had belonged to this vulgar person.

"Well, well! you were only a baby, to be sure, when you were taken away
from me. But oh, my dear, I loved you like my own that went to heaven,
so I did. And my John, he loved you too. Come in here till I show you
the bed you used to sleep in; and always you would be happier if you had
a jugful of flowers on the window-sill to look at, falling asleep and
coming awake again in the morning. To think of it being full five years
ago, my pretty; and you turned into an elegant young lady in the time!"

"Did I really ever live here?" asked Hetty; "really ever sleep in that
bed?"

"That you did; and slept well and were happy," said Mrs. Kane, beginning
to feel hurt at the child's coldness.