"Your present calling is one that you must soon lay aside; and, besides, there exists no necessity for your following it. Occurrences like that of to-day are likely to happen frequently, and will hinder what I so much desire—the affectionate reception of you by my family. My mother and sister have true hearts, and when they know you will love you tenderly. But they have prejudices, the result of education, which stand in the way of their knowing you. Now, ought you not, who see so clearly, to respect their prejudices, and do what you can to remove them?"
"Without doubt. I have already been reflecting on the subject, and have come to the determination to give up all my scholars immediately."
"You have?"
"Yes. In justice to you and to your family, I think this ought to be done."
"Glad indeed, am I, Ella, that you have come to this conclusion! What you have been doing ennobles rather than depresses you in my eyes, and will in theirs when they come to know you as I do."
In a few weeks the prejudices of Miss Baldwin, under the constant assaults of her brother, were so far broken down, that she consented to call with him and see Ella. As the doctor had expected, she was more than pleased with her, although the meeting was necessarily attended with a good deal of formality and reserve. A second visit enabled the young ladies to approach nearer, and understand each other better.
Clara Baldwin, from being pleased, soon became charmed with the lovely girl, and no longer wondered that her beauty, grace, intelligence, and worth, had captivated her brother. She could not but acknowledge in her own heart that, for her sister, she would far prefer Ella to any one of the gay, fashionable girls with whom she was acquainted. There was so much goodness about her—so much regard for others and giving up of self. The old watchmaker likewise rose in her estimation, after a few meetings with him; and the mother of Ella proved to be something more than the vulgar woman she had set her down in her imagination. She could not help observing and being charmed with the natural politeness that distinguished the intercourse of one member of the family with another. It was not ostentatious—not assumed—but came as the just expression of the good will each bore to the other. Of the wife of Doctor Hudson, she could never get done talking to her brother.
"She will grace any circle," she said.
"She will be called to grace the most intelligent and accomplished circle in the city, or I am mistaken," returned her brother.
"Why so?"