r 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
eye upon his daughter. I gave him a large sum for her, and brought her
with me to New Orleans. Do not despise me for it, my young friend. If
it had been told to me a few years before, in my New England home,
that I could ever become a party in such a transaction, I should have
rejected the idea with indignation. But my disappointed and lonely
condition rendered me an easy prey to temptation, and I was where
public opinion sanctioned such connections. Besides, there were kindly
motives mixed up with selfish ones. I pitied the unfortunate father,
and I feared his handsome daughter might fall into hands that would
not protect her so carefully as I resolved to do. I knew the freedom
of her choice was not interfered with, for she confessed she loved me.

"Senor Gonsalez, who was more attached to her than to anything else
in the world, soon afterward gathered up the fragments of his
broken fortune, and came to reside near us. I know it was a great
satisfaction to his dying hours that he left Eulalia in my care, and
the dear girl was entirely happy with me. If I had manumitted her,
carried her abroad, and legally married her, I should have no remorse
mingled with my sorrow for her loss. Loving her faithfully, as I did
to the latest moment of her life, I now find it difficult to explain
to myself how I came to neglect such an obvious duty. I was always
thinking that I would do it at some future time. But marriage with a
quadroon would have been void, according to the laws of Louisiana;
and, being immersed in business, I never seemed to find time to take
her abroad. When one