Pelham — Volume 07 by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
page 27 of 78 (34%)
page 27 of 78 (34%)
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purest years. I shrouded myself in one corner of the room, and counted
the dull minutes till the daylight dawned. I pass over the detail of my recital--the experiment partially succeeded--would to God that it had not! would that she had gone down to her grave with her dreadful secret unrevealed! would--but--" Here Glanville's voice failed him, and there was a brief silence before he recommenced. "Gertrude now had many lucid intervals; but these my presence were always sufficient to change into a delirious raving, even more incoherent than her insanity had ever yet been. She would fly from me with the most fearful cries, bury her face in her hands, and seem like one oppressed and haunted by a supernatural visitation, as long as I remained in the room; the moment I left her, she began, though slowly, to recover. "This was to me the bitterest affliction of all--to be forbidden to nurse, to cherish, to tend her, was like taking from me my last hope! But little can the thoughtless or the worldly dream of the depths of a real love; I used to wait all day by her door, and it was luxury enough to me to catch her accents or hear her move, or sigh, or even weep; and all night, when she could not know of my presence, I used to lie down by her bedside; and when I sank into a short and convulsed sleep, I saw her once more, in my brief and fleeting dreams, in all the devoted love, and glowing beauty, which had once constituted the whole of my happiness, and my world. "One day I had been called from my post by her door. They came to me hastily--she was in strong convulsions. I flew up stairs, and supported her in my arms till the fits had ceased: we then placed her in bed; she |
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