"The merciful man shews mercy to his beast,"
I ventured to add.
"I think you have not shewn much mercy," replied she, with a short, bitter laugh; "killing the poor birds by wholesale, in that shocking manner, and putting the dear boy to such misery, for a mere whim!"
I judged it prudent to say no more.
This was the nearest approach to a quarrel I ever had with Mrs. Bloomfield, as well as the greatest number of words I ever exchanged with her at one time, since the day of my first arrival.
But Mr. Robson and old Mrs. Bloomfield were not the only guests whose coming to Wellwood House annoyed me; every visiter disturbed me, more or less, not so much, because they neglected me, (though I did feel their conduct strange and disagreeable in that respect) as because I found it so impossible to keep my pupils away from them, as I was repeatedly desired to do: Tom must talk to them, and Mary Ann must be noticed by them. Neither the one nor the other knew what it was to feel any degree of shame-facedness, or even common modesty. They would
