I should despise myself were I guilty of the wicked and vulgar prejudice universal in America.

I should be beneath contempt did I submit or consent to it.

Two years ago I loved Miss Ercildoune without knowing aught of her birth.

She is the same now as then; should I love her the less?
If anything hard or cruel is in her fate that love can soften, it shall be done.

If any painful burdens have been thrown upon her life, I can carry, if not the whole, then a part of them.