Litchfield enquirer., 1846-07-09
LITCHF1ELD, (CoNN,) THURSDAY, JULY g. 1886

from tne south and the most eligible Sc
lectcd, 1t was determined that she should
accept it, and as soon as a suitable OPP
portunity should offer, that Ellen Gray
shold 90 and enter upon her relations in
a distant part of the land. 4.r Ir.
| II would be useless 10 speak of the pain
fulness of that parting. Ellen had the
support of one who feels that she is ing
right it was filial piety-a daughters
love shat led her to make the sacrifices in.
volved and great they certainly were.--
But the mother, how could she sustain the
trial? There were kind friends who pro-
missed to be still kinder, and Ellen wills
pered that she would return at the end
of a year and few years of service in
her new vocation would give them The
means of living always togther, in more
ease and comfort than ever before.
| She went. 1t was a new world, and a
strange world, and world she did not love,
| on which Ellen entered when the low but
| spacious mansion of a southern planter be-
came the scene Of her labors. Her new
friends were kind enough in their way, and
did what they thought was enough to make
their governess happy. But what did they
know of the means t. make Ellen Gray hap
py? 1t was love that Ellen wanted !; and in
the luxuries with which she was surround
ed, and to which she had never been accus-
toned in her owl cherished home, she sigh
ed often and deeply for the hills and the
hearts she had left in the frozen north.
Her charge was that Of two girls eleven
and nine years old, and they were delighted
with their new teacher. They hated the
cross French governeSs, who had tormented
them with her music and parley uouS, and
it was joy to them to have SO sweet temper
ed and lovely girl as Ellen Gray to be their
companion and guide. Months, a few
months, passed YEARLY by, and the sense of
loneliness wore slightly away, when George
Douglass, the son of Mr. Douglass, in whose
| family Ellen is now domeSticated, was an
nounted upon his return from college 1t
was nothing stGange that he should be smit-
ten with the winning loneliness of this new
inmate Of his fathers house, and that he
should wonder that one so gifted with beau
ty and wit should be compelled to toll in the
drudgery of teaching among strangers.
| 1t will give sad turn to this story, and
one :hat would give to if, if it were not TO
record the dangers of youth and innocence,
to say that George Douglass at college had
not been cured of the vices contracted in still
|
away from home had only served to pamper
his depraved appetites and infame his heart;
while the associations and pursuits of his
| educational course had expanded his mind,
| improved his manners, and made him a
more attractive and dangerous companion.
| He came home to be admired, caressed, and
courted the pride of his parents who had
| spoiled him in childhood, who were blind to
his faults, and praised him for those prodi-
gal habits which others condemned. But
thiswas the character in which he appeared
before he LEARNED that Ellen Gray was low
liler woman than he had ever trifed with !;
and her modest worth, while it commanded
his respect, assured him that if he would
win her regard, he must appear to be all that
| he was not, and conceal all that he was.
| Among the young men at the north, and
in the retired country parish where Ellen
| had lived, who looked upon the fair girl
| with admiration, there was not one who ven
tured to think of her as within his reach
Her purity, dignity, and grace shed lustre
| over her character, which daZzled the eye,
and rendered her the object of lofty wor-
ship. None had ever approached her with
a work of fattery, or whispered in her ear
the tale of secret love. This was the lesson
she first learned from George Douglass. 1t
was his artful tongue that first told her Of
her beauty, that, he said had stolen his
heart, and his voice first breathed the words
of love into her unsuSp:CLing ear. ~.
Yet well did George Douglass know that
Ellen Gray would not, with the consent OF
his parents, ever be his wife; nor did he
seek her as his own choice. His proud spi-
rit would h we spurned the thought of COM
partnership with poor, portionlesS girl.
But she believed him-was won by the pro-
testat:ons Of his love-and yielded him her
hearts best and purest affections. Alas, she
knew not the wickedness of the world, or the
dangers that beset her path.
George told her that his parents were OPP
posed to their plan and his mother soon
gave the trembling Ellen to understand, that
if she had any designs upon her son she
would soon leave the house Ellen assured
| the proud mother that she had no designs
npon him; he had told her that he loved
her, and she loved him in return but rath-
err than interfere with his happiness or the
peace of his family, she would return 10 her
own home in the far north, and George
should be to her as if he had never known
| her. ....
This was the first impulse of the gener-
ous heart of Ellen Gray. Yet she did not
know herself; she did not know how strong
were the ties that already bound her TO the
first and only heart that she had ever loved;
and when George proposed to her that night
that they should fly to the nearest city, and
be married privately, assuring her that When
it was once settled his parents would yield
and be satisfied, the confding girl gave her
ready consent, and in an evil hour commit
ted her happiness for life to the tender mer-
cies of a Williams. y
II was a mere trick of the wretch to get
her into his power. The marriage was a
sham, in which one of his college compan-
ions impiously personated the man of God;
and after few weeks of travel, in which
Ellen began to discover the vices OF che
whom she had supposed to te stainless as
| herself, George had made an excuse to leave
her, while he should go home and seek the
forgiveness of his parents, and effect recon-
| Citation. -
She never saw him again. Deserted in
strange city, aud left in absolute want,