The Illinois

4. Ethel's Childhood in Illinois

The place of Ethel's idyllic childhood. Lord Lodore settles them on the edge of settled American territories--where there was still much wilderness. Illinois became a state in 1818, which would place Lodore's arrival with Ethel roughly during the time that it was still governed as a territory.

Later, when Ethel is with Elizabeth, she tells stories of Illinois. “The Illinois rose before the eyes of her aunt, like a taintless paradise, inhabitated by an angel. Love and good dwelt together there in blamelessunion; the sky was brighter, the earth fairer, fresher, younger, more magnificent, and more wonderful, than in the old world.” (169)