And thus, while descanting on the pre-eminence of her misfortunes, she got rid of much of their severity.
You remember with what eloquence my mother used to describe what she had endured in America; you have also, I believe, heard her speak of the manner of my poor father's death: but you never heard what I have often listened to, with the pity which I could not utter, Lady Helen's assertion of her own trying sorrow, when my mother had harrowed up her feelings by the painful comparison.
"You may remember, that you were happy many years: but I" (here tears choked her voice) "remember, that while you were allowed to prove your love by soothing the sufferings of the being whom you adored, and had his smile to reward you, I was forced to prove mine only in the privacy of solitary and almost maddening recollections. Till recently, you have never known a real affliction, and I—oh! when have I for years experienced an enjoyment?"
This language used to silence, if it did not convince my mother.
But however they might dispute on the superiority of their trials, they loved each other the better for them, and were now scarcely ever separated.
Hence, Seymour and I were in a measure educated together, till it was judged fit that he should go to a public school. This painful trial was imposed on Lady Helen by her relations, and approved by her own judgment against the suggestions of her feelings; when I was eleven, and Seymour near fifteen years old; and when our mothers (as I was not long in discovering) had projected a union between us, and had promised each other to do all they could to ensure it.
Thus ends my Introduction.
Here begins, my dear friend,