When Annie descended from her hateful eminence, just before the final prayer, it was with a deeper sense of degradation than any violence of the tawse on her poor little hands could have produced.

Nor could the attentions of Alec, anxiously offered as soon as they were out of school, reach half so far to console her as they might once have reached; for such was her sense of condemnation, that she dared not take pleasure in anything.

Nothing else was worth minding till something was done about that.

The thought of having God against her took the heart out of everything .-- As soon as Alec left her, she walked with hanging head, pale face, and mournful eyes, straight to Mr Cowie's door.
She was admitted at once, and shown into the library, where the clergyman sat in the red dusky glow of the firelight, sipping a glass of wine, and looking very much like an ox-animal chewing the cud; for the meditation in which the good man indulged over his wine was seldom worthy of being characterized otherwise than as mental rumination.
"Well, Annie, my dear, come away," said he, "I am glad to see you.

How does the boat get on ?" Deeply touched by a kindness which fell like dew upon the parching misery of the day, Annie burst into tears.