"Because her husband will undoubtedly rise as high as any man of talents ever rose in this city. He is as sure to go up as the sun is to rise in the morning."
"You think so?"
"I know so. I should not be surprised to see him in the chair of professor of anatomy and surgery before five years. It may take place in less than that time. If the present incumbent in the school where he now is were to be removed from any cause to-morrow, I believe he would be chosen to succeed him."
"Is he so highly appreciated as that?"
"Yes, and by the very men who will have the power to elevate him when the right time comes."
[CHAPTER XV.]
PREJUDICES REMOVED.
THE mother of Doctor Baldwin was connected with a family of some note in the State, upon which fact she built up a pretty high estimate of her own consequence. For everything low and vulgar she had a most decided contempt, and would almost as soon be guilty of a crime as a breach of etiquette. Her son had good reason to fear that there would be some difficulty in the way of reconciling her to his marriage with a poor music teacher, when she had more than once expressed, in his hearing, the hope that he would not forget the advantages which his professional standing, as well as his family connexions, gave him in a matter of this kind. It was, in fact, the mother's wish that her son, in marriage, should, above all things, seek to better his fortune. He had himself entertained that idea; but, in a conversation he one day held with Doctor Hudson, was led to see that a man could not commit a greater folly than to make any consideration predominate over personal qualities in marriage.
How best to break the matter to Mrs. Baldwin was a subject of a good deal of reflection. At last, as time was pressing, Doctor Baldwin ventured upon the bold and above-board measure of telling his mother the whole story of his acquaintanceship with Miss Hudson, and of the engagement of marriage that had followed. The mother was overcome with astonishment and indignation. The noble independence and affectionate self-denial which Ella had practised, though portrayed by Baldwin in the warmest colors, made no favorable impression upon the proud woman's feelings, while the fact that she was the daughter of a poor mechanic, and obliged to teach music for a living, was magnified almost into a crime. Nothing that her son could urge in the least reconciled her.
"Don't talk to me about her, Edward!" she exclaimed passionately. "The low-born creature shall never darken my door!" This was more than Baldwin could bear; and to keep from making some retort that he would afterwards regret having uttered, he turned quickly away and left her presence. When they next met, both were cold and silent. Clara remained altogether neutral for the present, deeming it best to keep silence while her mother's mind continued in a state of over excitement.