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.