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Laura had a strong affection for her aunt, and would naturally be inclined to gratify any wishes that she enial and unattractive But the proposal that she should beco Haldane from his evil associations, and awaken within him pure and refined tastes, was decidedly attractive She was peculiarly romantic in her disposition, and no rude contact with the commonplace, common-sense world had chastened her innocent fancies by harsh and disagreeable experience Her Christian training and girlish siining herself the heroine in every instance, and the object and end of all masculine aspirations On this occasion she simply desired to act the part of a huood angel; and she was quite as disinterested in her hope for the young man's moral improvement as her aunt herself
The task,since she could perforreeable She could scarcely have given Haldane a plain talk on the evils of fast living to save her life, but if she could keep young aammon and by music, she felt in the mood to be a missionary all her life, especially if she could have so safe and attractive a field of labor as her aunt's back parlor
But the poor child would soon learn that perverse hu-room and a tenement-house, and that all who seek to i and discouraging
The siht result fronorant child would anticipate the consequences of fire falling on grains of har and fla fire, and had not learned by experience that in soht be like incendiary sparks to powder
In seeking to e her "difficult case," Mrs Arnot should have foreseen the danger of e creature as her assistant; but in these matters the wisest often err, and only comprehend the evil after it has occurred Laura was but a child in years, having passed her fifteenth birthday only a few months previous, and Haldane seemed to the lady scarcely more than a boy She did not intend that her niece shouldkindness and interest, barely enough to keep the young fellow fros out she knew not where He was at just the age when the glitter and tinsel of public amusements are most attractive She believed that if she could faold and clear diamond flash of pure hoood society, he would eventually becoilt, varnish, and paste If Laura had been a very plain girl, she ht have seconded Mrs Arnot's efforts to the utood ones had followed; and it may well be doubted whether any of the latter would have ensued Haldane's disease was too deeply rooted, and his tastes vitiated to such a degree that he had lost the power to relish long the simple enjoyments of Mrs Arnot's parlor He already craved the pleasures which first kindle and excite and then consume