and "poor souls, they are supported by charity, I pity them to my heart", said aloud in my hearing, with features expressive of every thing but pity.
"I will not dwell on things so common as ingratitude and hardness of heart; stings which you, my young friend, have never yet experienced,—heaven grant you never may, for 'tis a bitter cup to taste of. We lived in the manner I have described for near eight months, my poor mother so ill and helpless I could not leave her. The young gentleman I have mentioned payed me the same attention, and scrupled not to acquaint our good friend, it was his design, in a short time, to make me his wife. "If you do (said he, one day) you shall have a father's blessing with her when I die; whilst I live I will support the children: but Hermine is a good girl—she who can, at her time of life, give herself up to the care of a sick parent, and find delight in her duty, will make a good wife."
