"Oh, of course," she answered, with the mechanical acquiescence such women always give to moral platitudes.

"One must do one's best for the poor, I know--for conscience' sake and all that; it's our duty, and we all try hard to do it.

But they're so terribly ungrateful! Don't you think so?
Do you know, Miss Wade, in my father's parish--" Hilda cut her short with a sunny smile--half contemptuous toleration, half genuine pity.

"We are all ungrateful," she said; "but the poor, I think, the least so.

I'm sure the gratitude I've often had from my poor women at St.Nathaniel's has made me sometimes feel really ashamed of myself.