but my conviction that I am bound to bear my testimony to the truth could induce me to find fault with thee.  In doing so, I am acting with eternity in view.  I am acting in reference to that awful hour when I shall stand at thy death-bed, or thou by mine.’  Interrupting me, she said if I was so constantly found fault with, I would not bear it either; for her part, she was quite discouraged.  ‘Oh, mother,’ said I, ’there is something in thee so alienated from the love of Christ that thou canst not bear to be found fault with.’  ‘Yes,’ she said, ’you and Sally always say I speak in a wrong spirit, but both of you in a right one.’  She then went on to say how much I was changed, about slavery, for instance, for when I was first serious I thought it was right, and never condemned it.  I replied that I acted according to the light I had.  ‘Well, then,’ she continued, ‘you are not to expect everyone to think like Quakers.’  I remarked that true believers had but one leader, who would, if they followed Him, guide them into all truth, and teach them the same things.  She again spoke of my turning Quaker, and said it was because I was a Quaker that I disapproved of a great many things that nobody but Quakers could see any harm in.  I was much roused at this, and said with a good deal of energy, ’Dear mother, what but the power of God could ever have made me change my sentiments?’ Some very painful conversation followed about Kitty.  I did not hesitate to say that no one with Christian feelings could have treated her as she was treated before I took her; her condition was a disgrace to the name of Christian.  She reminded me that I had advised the very method that had been adopted with her.  This stung me to the quick.  ‘Not after I professed Christianity,’ I eagerly replied, ’and that I should have done so before, only proved the wretched manner of my education.’  But mother is perfectly blind as to the miserable manner in which she brought us up.  During the latter part of the conversation I was greatly excited, for so acute have been my sufferings on account of slavery, and so strong my feelings of indignation in looking upon its oppressions and degradations, that I cannot command my feelings in speaking of what my own eyes have seen, and thus, I believe, I lost the satisfaction I should otherwise have felt for speaking the truth.”

Though constantly disregarded, taunted, and thwarted, Angelina faithfully persevered in her efforts at reform, at the same time as faithfully striving after more meekness and singleness of purpose herself.

After a while, she obtained two concessions from which she hoped much:  one, that the servants should come to her in the library every day for religious instruction; the other, that her mother would sit with her in silence every evening for half an hour before tea.

The servants came as directed, and Angelina made her instructions so interesting that soon some of the neighbors’ servants asked to be admitted, and then her mother and one or two of her sisters joined the meetings; and though no very marked fruit of her labors appeared for some time, she persevered, with a firm faith that the seed she was sowing would not all be scattered to the winds.