I could not feel safe in New York, and I accepted the offer of a friend, that we should share expenses and keep house together.  I represented to Mrs. Hobbs that Ellen must have some schooling, and must remain with me for that purpose.  She felt ashamed of being unable to read or spell at her age, so instead of sending her to school with Benny, I instructed her myself till she was fitted to enter an intermediate school.  The winter passed pleasantly, while I was busy with my needle, and my children with their books.

XXXVII.  A Visit To England

In the spring, sad news came to me.  Mrs. Bruce was dead.  Never again, in this world, should I see her gentle face, or hear her sympathizing voice.  I had lost an excellent friend, and little Mary had lost a tender mother.  Mr. Bruce wished the child to visit some of her mother’s relatives in England, and he was desirous that I should take charge of her.  The little motherless one was accustomed to me, and attached to me, and I thought she would be happier in my care than in that of a stranger.  I could also earn more in this way than I could by my needle.  So I put Benny to a trade, and left Ellen to remain in the house with my friend and go to school.

We sailed from New York, and arrived in Liverpool after a pleasant voyage of twelve days.  We proceeded directly to London, and took lodgings at the Adelaide Hotel.  The supper seemed to me less luxurious than those I had seen in American hotels; but my situation was indescribably more pleasant.  For the first time in my life I was in a place where I was treated according to my deportment, without reference to my complexion.  I felt as if a great millstone had been lifted from my breast.  Ensconced in a pleasant room, with my dear little charge, I laid my head on my pillow, for the first time, with the delightful consciousness of pure, unadulterated freedom.

As I had constant care of the child, I had little opportunity to see the wonders of that great city; but I watched the tide of life that flowed through the streets, and found it a strange contrast to the stagnation in our Southern towns.  Mr. Bruce took his little daughter to spend some days with friends in Oxford Crescent, and of course it was necessary for me to accompany her.  I had heard much of the systematic method of English education, and I was very desirous that my dear Mary should steer straight in the midst of so much propriety.  I closely observed her little playmates and their nurses, being ready to take any lessons in the science of good management.  The children were more rosy than American children, but I did not see that they differed materially in other respects.  They were like all children—­sometimes docile and sometimes wayward.