"It's what I want to know, myself!" she cried warmly. "Have I quite deserved it all?"
"It's the way of the world, my dear. But I've something to tell you, on my side. I have just been talking to a young girl—I think they call her Lucy—and she is so glad and happy over this house and its possibilities! I wish you could have heard her talk. She says her mother is dead, and she is busy all day with the housework and babies. But to-night some good friend she called Nate, as I remember, who is not invited till to-morrow evening, said he would sit with the children and she should come with her father. It's the first party she was ever at, and she has a new muslin for it, and some dear Marry, as she called her, gave her a bit of nice lace for the neck, and it has been all bliss and rapture! Her voice was fairly tremulous with happiness, Joyce."
"O!" cried the latter, feeling better and better, "It must have been Lucy Hapgood. I wish I could have seen her, myself. Which way did she go?"
"I don't know, dear. Who is near us now? No one very close, is there?"
"No—at least all are busy with their own affairs."
"Then I will say this; remember always that you are not doing these things for gratitude, nor praise. That has always been understood, hasn't it?"
"Yes, yes, of course. But—but it's hard to have abuse, ma mère!"
"They don't mean it for you, chèrie. Are they not all nice to you, personally?"
"They treat me well enough, yes. But not as if they really care for me."
"And why should they, on so short acquaintance! Remember, they do not dream who their good fairy really is. And you must always tell yourself it is not you they repulse. You simply stand for the class that has oppressed and cheated them. They denounce "young Early" to-night, simply for the sake of what has gone before. They cannot believe in real friendliness all at once, and they look coolly on you, imagining you have no interests in common with them. They look across a gulf of suffering and privation at you, who seem never to suffer, and their eyes grow hard and stony. Can you wonder? You should not be either surprised, or hurt."