They did not dare as yet to bring him into Annette's sight;
but he was permitted to see her when she was sleeping. The tears
streamed down his sunburnt cheeks, as he contemplated the ravages
which grief and malady had made; and his heart swelled almost to
breaking, as he beheld round her neck the very braid of hair which she
once gave him in token of girlish affection, and which he had returned
to her in anger.
At length the physician that attended her determined to adventure upon
an experiment, to take advantage of one of those cheerful moods when
her mind was visited by hope, and to endeavour to engraft, as it were,
the reality upon the delusions of her fancy. These moods had now
become very rare, for nature was sinking under the continual pressure
of her mental malady, and the principle of reaction was daily growing
weaker. Every effort was tried to bring on a cheerful interval of the
kind. Several of her most favourite companions were kept continually
about her; they chatted gayly, they laughed, and sang, and danced; but
Annette reclined with languid frame and hollow eye, and took no part
in their gayety. At length the winter was gone; the trees put forth
their leaves; the swallows began to build in the eaves of the house,
and the robin and wren piped all day beneath the window.
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