wn the paper, took off her spectacles and laid
them glass downwards on the table. The long steel wires to pass over
the ears stood upright, formidably bristling.

"I always had my suspicions about that woman," she said, with thin
lips. "Oh, it's monstrous, it's abominable! That boy can't stop here
another minute."

"Oh, but, mother--why?" Sally exclaimed importunately. "What's he
done--he's done nothing."

"If you had a little more understanding about the laws of propriety,
you wouldn't ask a ridiculous question like that. The boy must go
at once. I've often thought since you came down here that the effect
of London upon you was to make you extremely lax in your judgment
of other people's morals. I've noticed it once or twice in different
things you've said. But you'll kindly leave this matter entirely to
me. That boy--I feel ashamed to think he's ever been under this
roof--is illegitimate!"

"Mother!" exclaimed the two girls.

"So I gather from this report," she said coldly.

Sally said nothing.

"And to think that I've allowed the wretched little creature to live
in my house and mix with my boys--a contaminating influence."

"It's horrible!" said the two girls.

"Oh, how unjust you all are!" exclaimed Sally, rising from the table
with burning cheeks. "How can a boy of that age be a contaminating
influence? How can he affect the innocence of all those other little
wretches whom you simper over just because their mothers have it in
their power to lift you in the society of this wretched little place?"

Mrs. Bishop had risen from her chair with white lips and distended
nostrils. The two girls were staring at Sally with wide eyes and open
mouths. For a moment there was a silence that thundered in all their
ears.

"Sally," said her mother, biting her words before she foamed them
from her, "if you weren't a daughter of mine, I'd--I'd say you were
a wanton woman. You know in your heart, as your father always taught
you--as you could read in the Bible now--if you ever do read your
Bible--that the sins of the fathers, yes, and the mothers too, will
fall on the children until the third and fourth generation; and do
you think that child of sin isn't contaminated by the vice of his
mother's wickedness?"

Elsie came to her mother's side with the proper affection of a
daughter and laid her hand gently on her shoulder.

"Don't worry yourself, mother," she said. "He can't stay, of course
he can't stay. Sally doesn't