( 337 )
CHAPTER XXXV.
Ellis remained in the deepest disturbance at the engagement into which she had entered. O cruel necessity! cruel, imperious necessity! she cried, to what a resource dost thou drive me! How unjust, how improper, how perilous!—Ah! rather let me cast myself upon Lady Aurora—Yet, angel as she is, can Lady Aurora act for herself? And Lord Melbury, guileless, like his nature, as may now be his intentions, what protection can he afford me that calamny may not sully? Alas! how may I attain that self-dependence which alone, at this critical period, suits my forlorn condition?
The horrour of a new debt, incurred under circumstances thus delicate, made the idea even of performing at the public benefit, present itself to her in
