ut of your senses, Henrietta. Surely you do not
think it was right to do such a thing?"

"Yes, quite right. You know what a horrid man he is; all the boys in
the town hate him, and so do I. At the sessions he sits swearing and
scolding incessantly, and when he is at his worst--just think!--he
lays about him with his whip. Bah! it serves him right; I wish he had
broken both arms, the brute!"

Sarah was thoroughly shocked. At this moment her mother seemed as if
she were about to rise from her chair, and the sisters resumed their
work diligently.

Sarah sat thinking that this affair of Henrietta's was very wrong,
and she doubted whether it was not her duty to tell her mother.
Madame Torvestad was strangely lenient towards her younger daughter;
she had once said, "As for Henrietta, I am under no apprehension; she
is easily influenced, and will in due time improve. It was very
different with you, Sarah; for you had a stubborn disposition, which
required early discipline. I am thankful to say that neither I nor
your excellent father spared the rod, and a blessing has followed it,
in that you have become what you are."

This she said with unusual effusion; generally the relations between
the mother and daughter were a trifle stiff. They could talk to one
another both on worldly and spiritual matters, but there was no real
familiarity between them.

Sarah had been brought up under the strongest sense of the duty of
children to their parents, and she regarded her mother with
veneration. She would sooner have cut off her hand than oppose her,
but she could not cast herself on her neck as she often wished to do.

When Henrietta, in the exuberance of her spirits, kissed and embraced
her, she experienced a wonderful pleasure, but she would tear herself
away, knowing that her mother did not like such demonstrations.

When they had worked on for a short time in silence, Henrietta
whispered again:

"He was drunk on Saturday."

"Who?"

"Lauritz."

"Oh! how do you know it?"

"He told me himself."

"But has he no feeling of shame?"

"Well, it was not so bad as all that; he was not downright drunk, you
know, only a little 'tight,' as they say."

It was evident that Henrietta was rather proud of him.

Before Sarah could regain her composure after this last shock, her
mother called to her.

"Sarah, come here and help me! Where is it that our Lord speaks of
the vine?"

"The fifteenth chapter of St. John."

"Read it