Poor girl! knowing she was motherless and friendless, I tried to win her
regard; I asked her to come to the house, with some other young girls of
the neighborhood, to study the Bible under my poor teachings; but she
declined, and I afterwards went to see her, hoping to persuade her to come.
I found her pale and delicate, and much dispirited. Thanking me most
earnestly, she begged me to excuse her, saying she rarely went out, on
account of her father's habits, fearing something might occur during her
absence from home. I was surprised to find her so depressed, yet I do not
remember ever to have seen any thing like guilt, in all the interviews with
her, from that hour until her death.

"Ellen's father died; but not before many had spoken lightly of his
daughter. Mr. Lee was constantly at the house; and what but Ellen's beauty
could take him there! No one was without a prejudice against Mr. Lee, and I
have often wondered that Ellen could have overlooked what every one knew,
the treatment his wife had received. You will think," continued Cousin
Janet, "that it is because I am an old maid, and am full of notions, that I
cannot imagine how a woman can love a man who has been divorced from his
wife. I, who have never loved as the novelists say, have the most exalted
ideas of marriage. It is in Scripture, the type of Christ's love to the
church. Life is so full of cares; there is something holy in the thought of
one heart being privileged to rest its burden on another. But how can that
man be loved who has put away his wife from him, because he is tired of
her? for this is the meaning of the usual excuses--incompatibility of
temper, and the like. Yet Ellen did love him, with a love passing
description; she forgot his faults and her own position; she loved as I
would never again wish to see a friend of mine love any creature of the
earth.

"Time passed, and Ellen was despised. Mr. Lee left abruptly for Europe, and