Oh, condemn me not for loving one who never thought of me save as a sister; one whom I knew from his boyhood loved another.

None on earth can tell how I have struggled to subdue myself.

I knew not my own heart till it was too late to school it into apathy.

He has gone, but while my heart still clings to Herbert only, oh, can I give my hand unto another ?" "Herbert!" burst from Mr.and Mrs.Hamilton at the same instant, and Ellen, turning from their glance, hid her flushing and paling cheek in her hands; for a moment there was silence, and then Mrs.Hamilton drew the agitated girl closer to her, and murmuring, in a tone of intense feeling, "my poor, poor Ellen!" mingled a mother's tears with those of her niece.

Mr.Hamilton looked on them both with extreme emotion; his mind's eye rapidly glanced over the past, and in an instant he saw what a heavy load of suffering must have been his niece's portion from the first moment she awoke to the consciousness of her ill-fated love; and how had she borne it?
so uncomplainingly, so cheerfully, that no one could suspect that inward sorrow.