ut to
accept Miss Mancel's money, especially in so great a proportion,
appeared to her like taking advantage of her youth; and as she did not
think her old enough to be a sufficient judge of the value of it, she
did not look upon her as capable of being a party in so perfect a
friendship, as was requisite to constitute that unity of property.

Poor Louisa by this disappointment of the first wish of her heart found
what older people often experience, that her riches instead of pleasure
procured her only mortification. She could scarcely refrain from tears
at a refusal which she thought must arise from want of affection, and
told Miss Melvyn she saw that she loved her but imperfectly; for, added
she, 'Could we change places, with how much pleasure should I have
accepted it from you! And the satisfaction that learning these things
now gives me would be turned into delight by reflecting on the
gratification you would receive in having been the means of procuring
them for me. I should not envy you the joy of giving, because I as
receiver should not have the less share of that satisfaction, since by
reflecting on yours I must partake of it, and so increase my own.'

Miss Melvyn could not forbear blushing at finding a superior degree of
delicacy, and a generosity much more exalted, in one so young, than she
had felt in herself. She plainly saw that the greatest proof of a noble
mind is to feel a joy in gratitude; for those who know all the pleasures
of conferring an obligation will be sensible that by accepting it they
give the highest delight the human mind can feel, when employed on human
objects; and therefore while they receive a benefit, they will taste not
only the comforts arising from it to themselves, but share the
gratification of a benefactor, from reflecting on the joy they give to
those who have conferred it: thus the receiver of a favour from a truly
generous person, 'by owing owes not, and is at once indebted and
discharged.'

As Miss Melvyn felt her little friend's reproach, and saw that she had
done her injustice in thinking her youth rendered her incapable of that
perfection of friendship, which might justify the accepting of her
offer; she acknowledged her error, and assured her she would comply if
she had no other means of obtaining the instruction she proposed to
purchase for her; but that was not the case, for she found she could
very well learn from seeing the masters teach her, and practising in
thei