The traveller met with no incidents important to this tale;
and, after an absence of about a fortnight, he and Ellen alighted from
their steeds (for on horseback had the journey been performed) in safety
at his own door.
If pen could give an adequate idea of Ellen Langton's loveliness, it would
achieve what pencil (the pencils, at least, of the colonial artists who
attempted it) never could; for, though the dark eyes might be painted, the
pure and pleasant thoughts that peeped through them could only be seen and
felt. But descriptions of beauty are never satisfactory. It must,
therefore, be left to the imagination of the reader to conceive of
something not more than mortal, nor, indeed, quite the perfection of
mortality, but charming men the more, because they felt, that, lovely as
she was, she was of like nature to themselves.
From the time that Ellen entered Dr. Melmoth's habitation, the sunny days
seemed brighter and the cloudy ones less gloomy, than he had ever before
known them. He naturally delighted in children; and Ellen, though her
years approached to womanhood, had yet much of the gayety and simple
happiness, because the innocence, of a child. She consequently became the
very blessing of his life,--the rich recreation that he promised himself
for hours of literary toil.
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