"It is most desirable that something should be done for those poor people, and Richard would never act rashly; but I have longed for advice whether it was right to promote Ethel's undertaking.

I suppose Richard told you how bent on it she was, long before papa was told of it." "He said it was her great wish, and had been so for a long time past." Margaret, in words more adequate to express the possession the project had gained of Ethel's ardent mind, explained the whole history of it.
"I do believe she looks on it as a sort of call," said she, "and I have felt as if I ought not to hinder her, and yet I did not know whether it was right, at her age, to let her undertake so much." "I understand," said Mr.Wilmot, "but, from what I have seen of Ethel, I should think you had decided rightly.

There seems to me to be such a spirit of energy in her, that if she does not act, she will either speculate and theorise, or pine and prey on herself.

I do believe that hard homely work, such as this school-keeping, is the best outlet for what might otherwise run to extravagance--more especially as you say the hope of it has already been an incentive to improvement in home duties." "That I am sure it has," said Margaret.
"Moreover," said Mr.Wilmot, "I think you were quite right in thinking that to interfere with such a design was unsafe.

I do believe that a great deal of harm is done by prudent friends, who dread to let young people do anything out of the common way, and so force their aspirations to ferment and turn sour, for want of being put to use." "Still girls are told they ought to wait patiently, and not to be eager for self-imposed duties." "I am not saying that it is not the appointed discipline for the girls themselves," said Mr.Wilmot.