been so uncommonly kind to his only parent, during a long illness.
When did a good action ever lose its reward? Helen thankfully accepted
Mr. Montgomery's kind offer of taking the young ones to stay with him
till she was settled in their new abode, but Henry would not hear of
it; he insisted on remaining with his sister and doing all he could to
help her. So that not liking to leave Fanny alone, it was agreed they
both should accompany her. She was not sorry for this, as she thought
the bustle and novelty would divert their minds from their sorrow; for
herself, so much was required of her, both to think and to do, that
she had no time to dwell on the desolation of her position.

I must not here forget to state, that, though only eighteen, Helen had
experienced other troubles than those which now bowed her down; and
they were such as the youthful mind ever feels most keenly. She had,
with the sanction of her parents, been engaged to Edward Cranston; he
was himself considered unexceptionable, and the match was thought a
very eligible one; he was five years Helen's senior, and had just
entered the practice of the law, with every prospect of being called
to the bar. He was first attracted by her beauty and afterwards won by
her amiable and pleasing manner. Idolized by his own family, where she
first met him, and unremitting in his attention to herself, she soon
felt attached, and, confidingly, plighted her troth, and all seemed
the _couleur de rose_. His stay was some time prolonged, but he had,
at length, to leave; it was a hard struggle to him to part from her;
and he did not do so without many promises of fidelity. To see him
leave her, was the first trial she knew. The pang was severe; but his
devotion was such, that she doubted not his faith, and most
indignantly would she have repudiated the idea that his love for her
could lessen; but his disposition was naturally volatile, and once
away from her, and within the blandishments of other beauty, he could