her life, degraded enough, yet free from actual guilt or personal dishonor and extremely touching. Amelia related some of the leading incidents to Mr. Brewster and his wife, and also to James Morgan, all of whom felt a deep interest in the prisoner, and a strong desire that she should have able counsel. To this, however, she seemed perfectly indifferent, refusing to communicate to any one but Amelia.
The pen of an author may sketch in glowing pictures the story of some isolated sufferer, whether the creature of fact or fiction, which shall stir every generous emotion of the soul, while every day, had we but eyes to see, and hearts to feel, the same incidents are coming within the range of our observation, and we carelessly pass them by without a thought. The real poetry of the soul which it is the true function of the novelist to portray, fails to make itself felt in its daily contact with others, unless there is a corresponding delicacy of perception which is able to distinguish the lineaments of real suffering from the impositions so often practised in its name.
Fortunately it happened that Walter was at home at the time the trial was coming on, and having been acquainted with the facts, resolved to defend her himself. True to the choice of his boyhood, his mind was still fixed on the legal profession as the pursuit of his life, toward which he looked as the goal of a laudable ambition, where he would have ample opportunities to befriend the friendless, as well as to gratify his own ardent aspirations. This case enlisted all the benevolent impulses of his soul, and kindled anew the enthusiasm he had ever felt
