"It will not do to say that we cannot help what is wrong, Ellen. What is the reason that you have bad feelings towards your aunt?"
"But how happens that, Ellen? I am afraid you don't like her."
"No, Maam, I don't to be sure; how can I?"
"Oh, I can't, Maam! I wish I could. But, oh! Maam, 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 unkind to you, Ellen?"
"Oh, yes, Maam, 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, Maam, 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 you do not think you have been in fault at all in the matter?"
"No, Maam, 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?"