Edinburgh, was then nearly twenty years of age. She had been the model
pupil at her Croydon day-school; tall and handsome, pious and practical,
she was just the girl to become the confidante and adviser of her
dark-eyed, active, and romantic young cousin.

Some time before the beginning of 1807, John James, having finished his
education at the High School, went to London, where a place had been
found for him by his uncle's brother-in-law, Mr. MacTaggart. He was
followed by a kind letter from Dr. Thomas Brown, who advised him to keep
up his Latin, and to study political economy, for the Professor looked
upon him as a young man of unusual promise and power. During some two
years, he worked as a clerk in the house of Sir William Gordon, Murphy
and Co., where he made friends, and laid the foundation of his
prosperity; for along with him at the office there was a Mr. Peter
Domecq, owner of the Spanish vineyards of Macharnudo, learning the
commercial part of his business in London, the headquarters of the
sherry trade. He admired his fellow-clerk's capacity so much as to offer
him the London agency of his family business. Mr. MacTaggart found the
capital in consideration of their taking his relative, Mr. Telford, into
the concern. And so they entered into partnership, about 1809, as
Ruskin, Telford and Domecq: Domecq contributing the sherry, Mr. Henry
Telford the capital, and Ruskin the brains.

How he came by his business capacity may be understood--and in some
measure, perhaps, how his son came by his flexible and forcible
style--from a letter of Mrs. Catherine Ruskin, written about this time;
in which, moreover, there are a few details of family circumstances and
character, not without interest. John James Ruskin had been protesting
that he was never going to marry, but meant to devote himself to his
mother; she replied: