had provided was found to be totally inapplicable. The young stranger
strove so hard, too (and undoubtedly it was a pleasant labor), to win her
love, that she was successful to a degree of which the lady herself was
not, perhaps, aware. It was soon seen that her education had not been
neglected in those points which Mrs. Melmoth deemed most important. The
nicer departments of cookery, after sufficient proof of her skill, were
committed to her care; and the doctor's table was now covered with
delicacies, simple indeed, but as tempting on account of their intrinsic
excellence as of the small white hands that made them. By such arts as
these,--which in her were no arts, but the dictates of an affectionate
disposition,--by making herself useful where it was possible, and
agreeable on all occasions, Ellen gained the love of everyone within the
sphere of her influence.

But the maiden's conquests were not confined to the members of Dr.
Melmoth's family. She had numerous admirers among those whose situation
compelled them to stand afar off, and gaze upon her loveliness, as if she
were a star, whose brightness they saw, but whose warmth they could not
feel. These were the young men of Harley College, whose chief
opportunities of beholding Ellen were upon the Sabbaths, when she
worshipped with them in the little chapel, which served the purposes of a
church to all the families of the vicinity. There was, about this period
(and the fact was undoubtedly attributable to Ellen's influence,) a
general and very evident decline in the scholarship of the college,
especially in regard to the severer studies. The intellectual powers of
the young men seemed to be directed chiefly to the construction of Latin
and Greek verse, many copies of which, with a characteristic and classic
gallantry, were strewn in the path where Ellen Langton was accustomed to
walk. They, however, produced no perceptible effect; nor were the
aspirations of another ambitious youth, who celebrated her perfections in