Both of you are well--" "Open a school!" exclaimed Mrs.Darlington, interrupting her brother, and exhibiting most profound astonishment.

"_I_ open a school! I didn't think _you_ would take advantage of my grief and misfortune to offer me an insult." Mr.Ellis buttoned the top button of his coat nervously, as his sister said this, and, partly turning himself towards the door, said-- "Teaching school is a far more useful, and, if you will, more respectable employment, than keeping a boarding-house.

This you ought to see at a glance.

As a teacher, you would be a minister of truth to the mind, and have it in your power to bend from evil and lead to good the young immortals committed to your care; while, as a boarding-house keeper, you would merely furnish food for the natural body--a use below what you are capable of rendering to society." But Mrs.Darlington was in no state of mind to feel the force of such an argument.

From the thought of a school she shrunk as from something degrading, and turned from it with displeasure.
"Don't mention such a thing to me," said she fretfully, "I will not listen to the proposition." "Oh, well, Margaret, as you please," replied her brother, now moving towards the door.