Manchurian Books

Long-indulged sorrow had preyed
on his mental and corporeal functions, and rendered him ill able to
support that severe blow. Williams sincerely repented the circumstantial
disclosure he had made. A feverish listlessness seized on the unhappy
Evellin, which yielded only to the visitation of a more dreadful
calamity. It was not decided insanity, but it dispelled the hopes which
had been formed of his being able to reclaim his usurped birth-right.
His bodily health was in time restored, and his mental infirmity became
a wild humoursome eccentricity, preserving traces of his noble
character, but querulously impatient of controul, subject to extravagant
transports, and incapable of steady exertion or connected thought. Still
magnanimous, independent and honourable, but moody, rash, and
intractable, he was the automaton of generous instinct, no longer
animated by reason.
Such a situation required constant vigilance to prevent irritation and
supply soothing recreations and gratifying objects. Williams was a most
useful assistant to Mrs.


Pages:
69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93