Mrs. Lewis begged that Elma should not be taken away from her;
and Mrs. Steward, angry with herself for what she termed her folly, had
yet yielded to her sister's entreaties. She said she would give Elma
what would be better than a fortune--namely, a first-class education;
and if, when her education was finished, she showed intelligence, and,
above all, a good, sterling, moral character, she would do what she
could to place her in life. Her present intention was, after Elma had
gone through a course of instruction at Middleton School, to send her
to Girton, thus enabling her by and by to take a really good position as
teacher.
All these things Elma knew well. She was an ambitious girl; she
earnestly desired to secure a good position for herself in life. She
hated her sister Carrie's ways, and detested the grumbling, weak sort of
character which she could not but see that her mother possessed. All the
same, she was not really scrupulous nor high-principled; it was only
that the little mean ways and the petty shifts which went on in the
small house in Constantine Road sorely fretted her. Her intercourse with
girls like Gwin Harley and Bessie Challoner could not but raise her
standard. Carrie's manners and ways disgusted her more and more each
day.
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