white face, and those eyes.
For God's sake go, and send me somebody else that doesn't look like
that!'

I went at once, and sent the hired nurse; but next morning I ventured to
enter his chamber again, and, taking the nurse's place by his bedside, I
watched him and waited on him for several hours, showing myself as little
as possible, and only speaking when necessary, and then not above my
breath. At first he addressed me as the nurse, but, on my crossing the
room to draw up the window-blinds, in obedience to his directions, he
said, 'No, it isn't nurse; it's Alice. Stay with me, do! That old hag
will be the death of me.'

'I mean to stay with you,' said I. And after that he would call me
Alice, or some other name almost equally repugnant to my feelings. I
forced myself to endure it for a while, fearing a contradiction might
disturb him too much; but when, having asked for a glass of water, while
I held it to his lips, he murmured, 'Thanks, dearest!' I could not help
distinctly observing, 'You would not say so if you knew me,' intending to
follow that up with another declaration of my identity; but he merely
muttered an incoherent reply, so I dropped it again, till some time
after, when, as I was bathing his forehead and temples with vinegar and
water to relieve the heat and pain in his head, he observed, after
looking earnestly upon me for some minutes, 'I have such strange
fancies--I can't get rid of them, and they won't let me rest; and the
most singular and pertinacious of them all is your face and voice--they
seem just like hers. I could swear at this moment that she was by my
side.'

'She is,' said I.

'That seems comfortable,' continued he, without noticing my words; 'and
while you do it, the other fancies fade away--but this only
strengthens.--Go on--go on, till it vanishes, too. I can't stand such a
mania as this; it would kill me!'

'It never will vanish,' said I, distinctly, 'for it is the truth!'

'The truth!' he cried, starting, as if an asp had stung him. 'You don't
mean to say that you are really she?'

'I do; but you needn't shrink away from me, as if I were your greatest
enemy: I am come to take care of you, and do what none of them would do.'

'For God's sake, don't torment me now!' cried he in pitiable agitation;
and then he began to mutter bitter curses against me, or the evil fortune
that had brought me there; while I put down the sponge and basin, and
resumed my seat at the bed-si