Page:The Poor Rich Man, and the Rich Poor Man.djvu/85

Rh ; and one of the third-story rooms we must keep for a spare room; and, when Sabina Jane gets to be a little older, she must have the back upper chamber; and so,' said I, 'mother, you see, if husband were perfectly willing, It is impossible.'"

"She could not have expected it."

"Oh, no, she did not; but, then, a mother is a mother, you know, and I did not wish to hurt her feelings."

"I presume, my dear, Helen Maria can get a place as governess or teacher in a school; I heard her say she had attended to music and painting, and French, and so on, at Mrs. ——'s school, for the last six years."

"So she has, I husband; but, bless you! you know how girls learn things at school, and she never expected to have to teach."

"Expect or not expect, I'd get my money's worth out of these schools. I saw, on your father's books, three hundred dollars a year paid for Helen Maria's schooling for the last six years, and this is what it has come to. Can't she teach geography, or arithmetic, or some of them useful branches?"

"No, she never was fond of the useful branches; she had quite a pretty taste for music and painting, but then people are required to understand them so well to teach them. No, I don't see as Helen Maria can earn any thing but by embroidering muslin; she does that beautifully; and if there was only a place where work might be sold without it being known where it came from, she might earn considerable, and no one be the wiser for it."