ensible to her enticements; I rather liked
her, she was so gentle and mild and considerate. There was an air of truth
and simplicity about her; she would sit herself down so cheerfully to
amuse me, and there was such a sparkle in her blue eyes when, as she said,
I condescended to interest myself in her little affairs, that I began, at
length, to love to be with her. But proud as I was, when I viewed mankind
at a distance, I no sooner came in contact with any one, who was not
immeasurably beneath me, than I felt myself sinking immeasurably beneath
him; and so, like a fool as I was, I fancied that all my cousin's kindness
was the result of her sense of duty to her relation; or, what was worse,
of pity for his moroseness. This faint suspicion became, in a little
while, a strong certainty; and I confined myself more closely to my books,
and looked into my cousin's guileless, enthusiastic face, with coldness.

I had known her now a year, and yet I hardly knew her at all; for I had
seen her scarcely ever, except when it was impossible to avoid it, and
those occasions were not frequent or long enough to enable me to learn
perfectly her mind and character. From every such meeting, I went away
resolved to see her no more in future; which resolution was sure to be
overruled by second and more bitter thoughts. How I lived during that
year, I scarcely know; or how it was that I grew uneasy away from her, and
frequently surprised myself courting her society. But as time rolled on,
so it was. There was a fascination about her, the magic of which was, that
it charmed to sleep my vigilant suspicion. I did not perceive any change
in myself, when night after night I was with her, talking to her about
poetry, beauty, love, and the thousand themes that interest the
unrestrained youthful heart; or that I was different from what I used to
be, when I listened to her, with a gush of pleasure, as she spoke at once
with lips and eyes, and in speaking, disclosed the unimagined riches of
her mind and heart. So gradual was the change, that I was wholly unaware
of it.

But of one thing I was aware; the face of nature and of man underwent a
strange and sudden change in appearance. I looked into the face of my
neighbor, and lo, he was my brother! The fire of benevolence and sympathy
warmed every vein, and a new life animated every nerve within me. I felt
no longer that I was alone, but that indissoluble cords bound me to the
whole human family, to eve