To such an exordium as this the young ladies listened with the most serious and interested attention. It is not that there is any pleasure derived from the consideration of the sufferings of our fellow creatures, that we love to dwell upon tales of woe; but our Creator has furnished sympathy with an indescribable attractiveness, which forbids us to withdraw our attention even from that which is painful. So the young ladies were desirous of hearing from Penelope some particulars of the sorrows to which she alluded; and they, thinking that there was no calamity in the houses of the poor but that which the purses of the wealthy might remove, were all ready to offer their contributions; and they expressed their concern that there should be human beings living in such a miserable unfurnished hovel, and they talked about blankets and old clothes which should be immediately sent from Neverden. “I thank you,” replied Miss Primrose, “for your kind offers, but they are not needed. The poor creatures are near the end of their sufferings, and such alleviation as could be afforded them they have received.” The young ladies then enquired, “Who are they? Are they very old people?” And Penelope replied, “One of them is very old, and the other is very young. The old man belongs to this parish, and has been very lately passed here from the place where he has been living, for the overseers of Smatterton would not otherwise make him any allowance. The younger sufferer is the old man’s grand-daughter, and she is in the last stage of a consumption, and suffering more from remorse than from bodily pain.” “From remorse!” exclaimed the young ladies. Then Penelope explained to them that, by the profligate Lord Spoonbill, this simple girl had been led from the paths of innocence. That by her transgression she had broken the heart of her widowed mother. That she had been kindly received by an aunt, who by labour and self-denial supported the old man her father, and this poor desolate outcast. Penelope then went on to say that this aunt had recently died, and that the old man had no other resource than the parish; and that the poor misguided one would have worked for him, but her strength was gone. So they, being feeble, helpless and destitute, and both of them broken-hearted, sought for a place to die in, and the parish of Smatterton gave them that cottage and allowed them a few shillings weekly.