ent summons, and left to
Ellen the task of fastening her lady's jewels.

Whenever nothing occurred to prevent it, Ellen was generally with her
aunt at dressing-time, and the little conversation that passed between
them at such periods frequently rendered Ellen's solitary evening
cheerful, when otherwise it might have been, from her state of health
and apparently endless task, even gloomy. Mrs. Hamilton had observed a
more than usual depression that evening in the manners of her niece,
and, without noticing, she endeavoured to remove it. Ellen was bending
down to clasp a bracelet as she spoke, and surprised at the question,
looked up, without giving herself time to conceal an involuntary tear,
though she endeavoured to remove any such impression, by smiling
cheerfully as she replied in the affirmative.

"And will it cheer your solitary evenings, then, my dear Ellen?" she
continued, drawing her niece to her, and kissing her transparent brow,
"if I say that, in the self-denial, patience, and submission you are now
practising, you are doing more, towards raising your character in my
estimation, and banishing from remembrance the painful past, than you
once fancied it would ever be in your power to do. I think I know its
motive, and therefore I do not hesitate to bestow the meed of praise you
so well deserve."

For a minute Ellen replied not, she only raised her aunt's hand to her
lips and kissed it, as if to hide her emotion before she spoke, but her
eyes were still swelling with tears as she looked up and
replied--"Indeed, my dearest aunt, I do not deserve it. You do not know
how irritable and ill-tempered I often feel."

"Because you are not very well, my love, and yet you do not feel
sufficiently ill to complain. I sometimes fancy such a state of health
as yours is more difficult to bear than a severe though short illness,
then, you can, at least, claim soothing consolation and sympathy. Now my
poor Ellen thinks she can demand neither," she added, smiling.

"I always receive both from you," replied Ellen, earnestly; "and not
much submission is required when that is the case, and I am told my
health forbids my sharing in Emmeline's pleasures."

"No, love, there would not be, if you felt so ill as to have no desire
for them; but that is not the case, for I know you very often feel quite
well enough to go out with me, and I am quite sure that my Ellen
sometimes wishes she were not so completely prohibited such amuseme