living, I would confide all to him, and be guided implicitly by his
advice. You resemble him so strongly, that I have been involuntarily
drawn to open my heart to you, as I never thought to do to so young a
man. Yet I find the fulness of my confidence checked by the fear of
lowering myself in the estimation of the son of my dearest friend. But
perhaps, if you knew all the circumstances, and had had my experience,
you would find some extenuation of my fault. I was very unhappy when I
first came to New Orleans. I was devotedly attached to a young lady,
and I was rudely repelled by her proud and worldly family. I was
seized with a vehement desire to prove to them that I could become
richer than they were. I rushed madly into the pursuit of wealth, and
I was successful; but meanwhile they had married her to another, and I
found that wealth alone could not bring happiness. In vain the profits
of my business doubled and quadrupled. I was unsatisfied, lonely, and
sad. Commercial transactions brought me into intimate relations with
Señor Gonsalez, a Spanish gentleman in St. Augustine. He had formed an
alliance with a beautiful slave, whom he had bought in the French West
Indies. I never saw her, for she died before my acquaintance with him;
but their daughter, then a girl of sixteen, was the most charming
creature I ever beheld. The irresistible attraction I felt toward her
the first moment I saw her was doubtless the mere fascination of the
senses; but when I came to know her more, I found her so gentle, so
tender, so modest, and so true, that I loved her with a strong and
deep affection. I admired her, too, for other reasons than her beauty;
for she had many elegant accomplishments, procured by her father's
fond indulgence during two years' residence in Paris. He was wealthy
at that time; but he afterward became entangled in pecuniary
difficulties, and his health declined. He took a liking to me, and
proposed that I should purchase Eulalia, and thus enable him to cancel
a debt due to a troublesome creditor whom he suspected of having an