In the city, Doctor Hudson was at this time well-known to the public by his eminent skill as a surgeon, and to the profession abroad by reports of successful and difficult operations which he had performed, but much more through the many able communications from his pen, which had appeared from time to time in the medical journals. Some time before the occurrence just referred to, Ella had become the wife of Dr. Baldwin, and already the fact of her having been only a music teacher was nearly forgotten, or, if remembered, was thought of as honorable to her independent spirit, rather than as an exception to her standing in society. It was rather a severe trial to the pride of Mrs. Baldwin to come into such near relationship with a poor old watchmaker and his wife as the marriage of her son with Ella necessarily brought her, and at her first meeting with them, it required the exercise of a good deal of self-denial to treat them with anything more than cold politeness. It did not take her long, however, to understand that she was not in the company of an ignorant, vulgar-minded woman, when she sat by the side of Mrs. Hudson; but with one of her sex whose mind, if not fashionably educated, had delicate perceptions of right and wrong, great penetration, and sound sense. It would not do, she felt, to assume any importance with her, from having moved in a different sphere, for this would not elevate but rather lower her in the estimation of Mrs. Hudson, for whom, in spite of herself, she felt a rising sentiment of respect. The father of Ella was a man of a character much more strongly marked than she had expected to find, and she noticed that men of education and known attainments, when they engaged in conversation with him, paid great deference to his remarks, and treated him with as much respect as they did any one. "If he would only give up that old shop of his," Mrs. Baldwin said to her son, shortly after his marriage, "he could come into genteel society, and no one would ever suspect that he had been a mechanic. I wonder Doctor Hudson doesn't go to housekeeping in a handsome way, and take the old folks to live with him." "It is his intention to do so as soon as he thinks his income sufficient for the purpose," replied Baldwin. "Isn't it sufficient now?" asked the mother. "He thinks not; and I suppose he ought to be the best judge in the case. But if I am not mistaken in the character of his father, he will find the old gentleman altogether opposed to such an arrangement. I have heard him say, that he considered every man in duty bound to pursue some useful employment so long as he had a sound mind and a hale body; both of which he possesses. Mr. Hudson is too independent in his habits of thinking and feeling, to consent to give up his business, while he can work at it; at least such is my opinion."