“Almost anything is better.  Suppose you and Edith were to open a school.  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.  “When you ask my advice, I will give it according to my best judgment, and with a sincere desire for your good.  If, however, it conflicts with your views, reject it; but, in simple justice to me, do so in a better spirit than you manifest on the present occasion.  Good evening!”

Mrs. Darlington was too much disturbed in mind to make a reply, and Mr. Hiram Ellis left the room without any attempt on the part of his sister to detain him.  On both sides, there had been the indulgence of rather more impatience and intolerance than was commendable.

* * * *

CHAPTER III.

In due time, Mrs. Darlington removed to a house in Arch Street, the annual rent of which was six hundred dollars, and there began her experiment.  The expense of a removal, and the cost of the additional chamber furniture required, exhausted about two hundred dollars of the widow’s slender stock of money, and caused her to feel a little troubled when she noted the diminution.

She began her new business with two boarders, a gentleman and his wife by the name of Grimes, who had entered her house on the recommendation of a friend.  They were to pay her the sum of eight dollars a week.  A young man named Barling, clerk in a wholesale Market Street house, came next; and he introduced, soon after, a friend of his, a clerk in the same store, named Mason.  They were room-mates, and paid three dollars and a half each.  Three or four weeks elapsed before any further additions were made; then an advertisement brought several applications.  One was from a gentleman who wanted two rooms for himself and wife, a nurse and four children.  He wanted the second story front and back chambers, furnished, and was not willing to pay over sixteen dollars, although his oldest child was twelve and his youngest four years of age—­seven good eaters and two of the best rooms in the house for sixteen dollars!