Night after night Mary watched, and this excessive fatigue impaired her
own health, but had a worse effect on Ann; though she constantly went to
bed, she could not rest; a number of uneasy thoughts obtruded
themselves; and apprehensions about Mary, whom she loved as well as her
exhausted heart could love, harassed her mind. After a sleepless,
feverish night she had a violent fit of coughing, and burst a
blood-vessel. The physician, who was in the house, was sent for, and
when he left the patient, Mary, with an authoritative voice, insisted on
knowing his real opinion. Reluctantly he gave it, that her friend was in
a critical state; and if she passed the approaching winter in England,
he imagined she would die in the spring; a season fatal to consumptive
disorders. The spring!--Her husband was then expected.--Gracious Heaven,
could she bear all this.

In a few days her father breathed his last. The horrid sensations his
death occasioned were too poignant to be durable: and Ann's danger, and
her own situation, made Mary deliberate what mode of conduct she should
pursue. She feared this event might hasten the return of her husband,
and prevent her putting into execution a plan she had determined on. It
was to accompany Ann to a more salubrious climate.




CHAP. VIII.


I mentioned before, that Mary had never had any particular attachment,
to give rise to the disgust that daily gained ground. Her friendship for
Ann occupied her heart, and resembled a passion. She had had, indeed,