Lodi. I found her, at length, in the family of a kinsman of the captain
under whose care she had come to America. Her situation was irksome and
perilous. She had already experienced the evils of being protectorless
and indigent, and my seasonable interference snatched her from impending
and less supportable ills.

"I could safely unfold all that I knew of her brother's history, except
the legacy which he had left. I ascribed the diligence with which I had
sought her to his death-bed injunctions, and prevailed upon her to
accept from me the treatment which she would have received from her
brother if he had continued to live, and if his power to benefit had
been equal to my own.

"Though less can be said in praise of the understanding than of the
sensibilities of this woman, she is one whom no one could refrain from
loving, though placed in situations far less favourable to the
generation of that sentiment than mine. In habits of domestic and
incessant intercourse, in the perpetual contemplation of features
animated by boundless gratitude and ineffable sympathies, it could not
be expected that either she or I should escape enchantment.

"The poison was too sweet not to be swallowed with avidity by me. Too
late I remembered that I was already enslaved by inextricable
obligations. It was easy to have hidden this impediment from the eyes of
my companion, but here my integrity refused to yield. I can, indeed, lay
claim to little merit on account of this forbearance. If there had been
no alternative between deceit and the frustration of my hopes, I should
doubtless have dissembled the truth with as little scruple on this as on
a different occasion; but I could not be blind to the weakness of her
with whom I had to contend.