In her quiet way she had a strong sense of humour.
"I think I like Mrs.Parker, Malcolm." "Verity liked her too; she always says that she owes a great deal to her motherly care.

'I got a few cuffs sometimes,' she once said to me, 'but I daresay I deserved them, and, poor woman, she had troubles of her own to bear.

But on cold nights I can't forget how she would come upstairs to tuck me up, and see if I were warm enough; and once, when I could not sleep for shivering, she brought me up some hot drink, and covered me up in an old shawl of her own;' and as long as Mrs.Parker lived Verity never forgot her.'" "I am beginning to feel interested in her, Malcolm." "My dear child, if you could only hear Goliath talk on this subject your heart would ache for many a day.

Think of that poor child growing up to womanhood in such surroundings; spending her days in a dirty, bare studio, with only rough, dissipated men for her companions--though to do them justice they treated her with respect and kindness.

Somehow she picked up a desultory education among them.