coherent answer, to quit for a moment my
habitual train of thought. The mention of your healthy-living
daughters reminds me of the world where other people live--where I
lived once. Theirs are cheerful images as you present them--I have
no wish to shut them out.

'From all you say of Ellen, the eldest, I am inclined to respect her
much. I like practical sense which works to the good of others. I
esteem a dutiful daughter who makes her parents happy.

'Fanny's character I would take on second hand from nobody, least of
all from her kind father, whose estimate of human nature in general
inclines rather to what _ought_ to be than to what _is_. Of Fanny I
would judge for myself, and that not hastily nor on first
impressions.

'I am glad to hear that Louisa has a chance of a presentation to
Queen's College. I hope she will succeed. Do not, my dear sir, be
indifferent--be earnest about it. Come what may afterwards, an
education secured is an advantage gained--a priceless advantage.
Come what may, it is a step towards independency, and one great curse
of a single female life is its dependency. It does credit both to
Louisa's heart and head that she herself wishes to get this
presentation. Encourage her in the wish. Your daughters--no more
than your sons--should be a burden on your hands. Your daughters--as
much as your sons--should aim at making their way honourably through
life. Do not wish to keep them at home. Believe me, teachers may be
hard-worked, ill-paid, and despised, but the girl who stays at home
doing nothing is worse off than the hardest-wrought and worst-paid
drudge of a school. Whenever I have seen, not merely in humble, but
in affluent homes, families of daughters sitting waiting to be
married, I have pitied them from my heart. It is doubtless
well--very well--if Fate decrees them a happy marriage; but, if
otherwise, give their existence some object, their time some
occupation, or the peevishness of disappointment and the listlessness
of idleness will infallibly degrade their nature.

'Should Louisa eventually go out as a governess, do not be uneasy
respecting her lot. The sketch you give of her character leads me to
think she has a better chance of happiness than one in a hundred of
her sisterhood. Of pleasing exterior (that is always an
advan