She did look at herself with a sort of compunction when she realized the fact that she might have to go to work in the shop some time.

School-teaching was different, but could she earn enough school-teaching?
There was a sturdy vein in the girl.

All the time she pitied herself she blamed herself.
"You come of working-people, Ellen Brewster.

Why are you any better than they?
Why are your hands any better than their hands, your brain than theirs?
Why are you any better than the other girls who have gone to work in the shops?
Do you think you are any better than Abby Atkins ?" And still Ellen used to look at herself with a pitying conviction that she would be out of place at a bench in the shoe-factory, that she would suffer a certain indignity by such a course.

The realization of a better birthright was strong upon her, although she chided herself for it.