184 THE COUSINS.

Lucy had often lately tried to imagine herself
in just such circumstances, and to apply to those
circumstances Miss Bennet’s and her father’s les-
sons; yet at first she could not remember that
this boy was displaying a deformity of soul far
more hideous than hers of the body, and that she
ought, therefore, to pity him. She could only
think and grieve that her young acquaintances
saw her exposed to such humiliation—the jeer and
mock of a rude boy, and she grew pale, and tears
of bitter mortification rushed to her eyes. She
might have used angry words, but before she had
time to speak, Mary was uttering the most bitter
invectives which indignation could suggest, and
Lucy, therefore, had time to recover her self-
command, and to recollect what had seemed right
to her when she had thought on these things in
the stillness of her own room. Silently in her
own heart she asked God to help her in doing
right, and this is a prayer which is never rejected
by our heavenly Father. In a moment or two,
before they had time to cross half the Park,
through which the boy continued to follow them,

her colour came again, and she said “ Hush,