No persuasions could induce her to leave the side of her aunt's couch, or resign to another the painful yet soothing task of nursing.

Young and inexperienced she was, but her strong affection for her aunt, heightened by some other feeling which was hidden in her own breast, endowed her at once with strength to endure continued fatigue, with an experience that often made Mr.
Maitland contemplate her with astonishment.

From the period of Herbert's death, Ellen had placed her feelings under a restraint that utterly prevented all relief in tears.

She was never seen to weep; every feature had indeed spoken the deep affliction that was hers, but it never interfered with the devoted care she manifested towards her aunt.
Silently yet perseveringly she laboured to soften the intense suffering in the mother's heart; it was on her neck Mrs.Hamilton had first wept freely and relievingly, and as she clasped the orphan to her bosom, had lifted up her heart in thanksgiving that such a precious gift was yet preserved her, how little did even she imagine all that was passing in Ellen's heart; that Herbert to her young fancy had been how much dearer than a brother; that she mourned not only a cousin's loss, but one round whom her first affections had been twined with an intensity that death alone could sever.

How little could she guess the continued struggle pressing on that young mind, the anguish of her solitary moments, ere she could by prayer so calm her bursting heart as to appear the composed and tranquil being she ever seemed before the family.