Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/80

72, like herself, in acquiring a knowledge of the business she had come to learn. Some of these, who had been blessed with advantages greater than hers, or who had seen more of the world, were not backward in ridiculing the unpolished girl for her defects of speech, dress, and manner. Ann was sensitive, and these things hurt her; but the result was good, for it caused her to think of the defects pointed out so rudely, and to make an effort to correct them. It likewise caused her to be retiring and observant—to think of her words, her manners, and her conduct. Many months did not pass, before there was a change in her external appearance, and in her manners, that was very apparent—a change that had been so gradual as not to attract sudden attention. She had also learned to think, and to contrast the good principles she had been taught at home with what she saw and heard. Early impressed with a regard for the truth, to her great surprise she too often found it violated by those around her; and she was no less surprised to find in many of the young girls in the work-room a total disregard to the interests of the person with whom they were learning their trade.

Among her fellow-apprentices was one named Florence, to whom Ann early attached herself.