ON the next morning, only Mrs. Darlington met her boarders at the
breakfast-table, when she announced to them that she had concluded to
close her present business, and seek some new mode of sustaining her
family; at the same time, desiring each one to find another home as
early as possible.
At the close of the third day after this, Mrs. Darlington sat down to
her evening meal with only her children gathered at the table. A
subdued and tranquil spirit pervaded each bosom, even though a dark
veil was drawn against the future. To a long and troubled excitement
there had succeeded a calm. It was good to be once more alone, and they
felt this. "Through what a scene of trial, disorder, and suffering have
we passed!" said Edith. "It seems as if I had just awakened from a
dream."
"And such a dream!" sighed Miriam.
"Would that it were but a dream!" said Mrs. Darlington. "But, alas! the
wrecks that are around us too surely testify the presence of a
devastating storm."
"The storm has passed away, mother," said Edith; "and we will look for
calmer and brighter skies."
"No bright skies for us, I fear, my children," returned the mother,
with a deeper tinge of sadness in her voice.
"They are bright this hour to what they were a few days since," said
Edith, "and I am sure they will grow brighter. I feel much encouraged.
Where the heart is willing, the way is sure to open. Both Miriam and I
are willing to do all in our power, and I am sure we can do much. We
have ability to teach others; and the exercise of that ability will
bring a sure reward. I like Uncle Hiram's suggestion very much."
"But the humiliation of soliciting scholars," said the mother.
"To do right is not humiliating," quickly replied Edith.
"It is easy to say this, my child; but can you go to Mrs. Lionel, for
instance, with whose family we were so intimate, and solicit her to
send Emma and Cordelia to the school you propose to open, without a
smarting sense of humiliation? I am sure you cannot."
Edith communed with her own thoughts for some moments, and then
answered--
"If I gave way to false pride, mother, this might be so; but I must
overcome what is false and evil. This is as necessary for my happiness
as the external good we seek--nay, far more so. Too many who have moved
in the circle where we have been moving for years strangely enough
connect an idea of degradation with the office of teaching children.
But is there on the earth a higher or more important use than
instructing the mind and training the heart of young immortals? It has
been beautifully and truly said, that 'Earth is the nursery of Heaven.'
The teacher, then, is a worker in God's own garden. Is it not so,
mother?"
"You think wisely, my child. God grant that your true thoughts may
sustain you in the trials to come!" replied Mrs. Darlington.
The door-bell rang as the family were rising from the tea-table. The
visitor was Mr. Ellis. He had come to advise with and assist the
distressed mother and her children; and his words were listened to with
far more deference than was the case a year before. Nine or ten months'
experience in keeping a boarding-house had corrected many of the false
views of Mrs. Darlington, and she was now prepared to make an effort
for her family in a different spirit from that exhibited in the
beginning. The plan proposed by her brother--a matter-of-fact kind of
person--was the taking of a house at a more moderate rent, and opening
a school for young children. Many objections and doubts were urged; but
he overruled them all, and obtained, in the end, the cordial consent of
every member of the family. During the argument which preceded the
final decision of the matter, Mrs. Darlington said--
"Suppose the girls should not be able to get scholars?"
"Let them see to this beforehand."
"Many may promise to send, and afterwards change their minds."
"Let them," replied the brother. "If, at the end of the first, second,
and third years, you have not made your expenses, I will supply the
deficiency."
"You!"
"Yes. The fact is, sister, if you will be guided in some respects by my
judgment, I will stand by you, and see you safely over every
difficulty. Your boarding-house experiment I did not approve. I saw
from the beginning how it would end, and I wished to see the end as
quickly as possible. It has come, and I am glad of it; and, still
further, thankful that the disaster has not been greater. If you only
had now the five or six hundred dollars wasted in a vain experiment
during the past year, how much the sum might do for you! But we will
not sigh over this. As just said, I will stand by you in the new
experiment, and see that you do not fall again into embarrassment."
Henry was present at this interview, but remained silent during the
whole time. Since the day of Miriam's departure with Burton, and safe
return, a great change had taken place in the young man. He was like
one starting up from sleep on the brink of a fearful precipice, and
standing appalled at the danger he had escaped almost by a miracle. The
way in which he had begun to walk he saw to be the way to sure
destruction, and his heart shrunk with shame and trembled with dismay.
"Henry," said the uncle, after an hour's conversation with his sister
and Edith, "I would like to talk with you alone."
Mrs. Darlington and her daughters left the room.
"Henry," said Mr. Ellis, as soon as the rest had withdrawn, "you are
old enough to do something to help on. All the burden ought not to come
on Edith and Miriam."
"Only show me what I can do, uncle, and I am ready to put my hands to
the work," was Henry's prompt reply.
"It will be years before you can expect an income from your profession."
"I know, I know. That is what discourages me."
"I can get you the place of clerk in an insurance office, at a salary
of five hundred dollars a year. Will you accept it?"
"Gladly!" The face of the young man brightened as if the sun had shone
upon it suddenly.
"You will have several hours each day, in which to continue your law
reading, and will get admitted to the bar early enough. Keep your
mother and sisters for two or three years, and then they will be in a
condition to sustain you until you make a practice in your profession."
But to this the mother and sisters, when it was mentioned to them,
objected. They were not willing to have Henry's professional studies
interrupted. That would be a great wrong to him.
"Not a great wrong, but a great good," answered Mr. Ellis. "And I will
make this plain to you. Henry, as I learn from yourself, has made some
dangerous associations; and some important change is needed to help him
break away from them. No sphere of life is so safe for a young man as
that which surrounds profitable industry pursued for an end. Temptation
rarely finds its way within this sphere. Two or three years devoted to
the duties of a clerk, with the end of aiding in the support of his
mother and sisters, will do more to give a right direction to Henry's
character--more to make success in after life certain--than any thing
else possible now to be done. The office in which I can get him the
situation I speak of adjoins the one to which I am attached, and I
will, therefore, have him mostly under my own eye. In this new school,
the ardency of his young feelings will be duly chastened, and his
thoughts turned more into elements of usefulness. In a word, sister, it
will give him self-dependence, and, in the end, make a man of him."
The force of all this, and more by this suggested, was not only seen,
but felt, by Mrs. Darlington; and when she found her son ready to
accept the offer made to him, she withdrew all opposition.
Steps preliminary to the contemplated change were immediately taken.
First of all, Edith waited upon a number of their old friends, who had
young children, and informed them that she was, in connection with her
sister, about opening a school. Some were surprised, some pleased, and
some indifferent at the announcement; but a goodly number expressed
pleasure at the opportunity it afforded them of placing their younger
children under the care of teachers in whose ability and character they
had so much confidence. Thus was the way made plain before them.