"Oh, I can't, ma'am! I wish I could. But, oh, ma'am, I should have liked her--I might have liked her if she had been kind, but she never has. Even that first night I came she never kissed me, nor said she was glad to see me." "That was failing in kindness certainly, but is she _un_kind to you, Ellen?" "Oh yes, ma'am, indeed she is. She talks to me, and talks to me, in a way that almost drives me out of my wits; and to-day she even struck me! She has no right to do it," said Ellen, firing with passion, "she has no _right_ to!--and she has no right to talk as she does about mamma. She did it to-day, and she has done it before. I can't bear it! and I can't bear _her_! I can't _bear_ her!" "Hush, hush," said Alice, drawing the excited child to her arms, for Ellen had risen from her seat, "you must not talk so, Ellen; you are not feeling right now." "No, ma'am, I am not," said Ellen coldly and sadly. She sat a moment, and then turning to her companion put both arms round her neck, and hid her face on her shoulder again; and without raising it she gave her the history of the morning. "What has brought about this dreadful state of things?" said Alice after a few minutes. "Whose fault is it, Ellen?" "I think it is Aunt Fortune's fault," said Ellen, raising her head; "I don't think it is mine. If she had behaved well to me I should have behaved well to her. I meant to, I am sure." "Do you mean to say that you do not think you have been in fault at all in the matter?" "No, ma'am, I do not mean to say that. I have been very much in fault--very often--I know that. I get very angry and vexed, and sometimes I say nothing, but sometimes I get out of all patience and say things I ought not. I did so to-day; but it is so very hard to keep still when I am in such a passion, and now I have got to feel so towards Aunt Fortune that I don't like the sight of her; I hate the very look of her bonnet hanging up on the wall. I know it isn't right; and it makes me miserable; and I can't help it, for I grow worse and worse every day; and what shall I do?" Ellen's tears came faster than her words. "Ellen, my child," said Alice after a while, "there is but one way. You know what I said to you yesterday?" "I know it, but, dear Miss Alice, in my reading this morning I came to that verse that speaks about not being forgiven if we do not forgive others; and oh! how it troubles me; for I can't feel that I forgive Aunt Fortune; I feel vexed whenever the thought of her comes into my head; and how can I behave right to her while I feel so?" "You are right there, my dear; you cannot indeed; the heart must be set right before the life can be." "But what shall I do to set it right?" "Pray." "Dear Miss Alice, I have been praying all this morning that I might forgive Aunt Fortune; and yet I cannot do it."