To have her mind’s dear father in her sight;
But soon the borrow’d notion she resign’d!
He was no father—even to the mind. 140
But Ellen had her comforts—“He will speak,”
She said, “for he beholds me fond and weak;
Fond, and he therefore may securely plead—
Weak, I have therefore of his firmness need;
With whom my father will his Ellen trust,
Because he knows him to be kind and just.”
Alas! too well the conscious lover knew