office is to pity and amend, and not to punish and revile. I deemed
myself exempt from all tempestuous passions. I had almost persuaded
myself to weep over thy fall; but I am frail as dust, and mutable as
water; I am calm, I am compassionate only in thy absence.--Make this
house, this room, thy abode as long as thou wilt, but forgive me if I
prefer solitude for the short time during which I shall stay." Saying
this, he motioned as if to leave the apartment.

The stormy passions of this man affected me by sympathy. I ceased to
weep. I was motionless and speechless with agony. I sat with my hands
clasped, mutely gazing after him as he withdrew. I desired to detain
him, but was unable to make any effort for that purpose, till he had
passed out of the room. I then uttered an involuntary and piercing
cry--"Pleyel! Art thou gone? Gone forever?"

At this summons he hastily returned. He beheld me wild, pale, gasping
for breath, and my head already sinking on my bosom. A painful dizziness
seized me, and I fainted away.

When I recovered, I found myself stretched on a bed in the outer
apartment, and Pleyel, with two female servants standing beside it. All
the fury and scorn which the countenance of the former lately expressed,
had now disappeared, and was succeeded by the most tender anxiety. As
soon as he perceived that my senses were returned to me, he clasped his
hands, and exclaimed, "God be thanked! you are once more alive. I had
almost despaired of your recovery. I fear I have been precipitate and
unjust. My senses must have been the victims of some inexplicable and
momentary phrenzy. Forgive me, I beseech you, forgive my reproaches. I
would purchase conviction of your purity, at the price of my existence
here and hereafter."

He once more, in a tone of the most fervent tenderness, besought me to
be composed, and then left me to the care of the women.

Chapter XIII

Here was wrought a surprizing change in my friend. What was it that
had shaken conviction so firm? Had any thing occurred during my fit,
adequate to produce so total an alteration? My attendants informed me
that he had not left my apartment; that the unusual duration of my fit,
and the failure, for a time, of all the means used for my recovery, had
filled him with grief and dismay. Did he regard the effect which his
reproaches had produced as a proof of my sincerity?

In this state of mind, I little regarded my languors of body. I rose
and request