ccordingly sent him another volume,
although I did not know whether to augur well or ill from this
anxiety; but I was inclined to be of opinion that the symptom was an
auspicious one. Two days afterwards, the messenger called again, with
a repetition of his former request for another volume as soon as it
could be sent. I complied with it instantly; sending, however, on this
occasion, two--for I thought my medicine was operating beneficially,
and it was of that kind that could be of no use unless administered in
large doses, so, as it were, to surfeit and sicken the disease, and
force it, by paralysing its energies, to relinquish its grasp of the
patient's mind and body.

Two days more having elapsed, I felt anxious to ascertain the effect
of my moral _emetocathartics_, and set out on the special errand of
visiting my patient. The house, as I approached, exhibited the same
still, dead-like aspect it possessed on my first visit. On knocking at
the door, it was opened timidly and slowly by the daughter, who
appeared to be paler, more sorrow-stricken, more weak and irritable,
than on the occasion of my former visit. Her eye exhibited that
terrorstruck look which nervous people, kept on the rack of a fearful
apprehension, so often exhibit. Her voice was low, monotonous, and
weak, as if she had been exhausted by mental anxiety, watching, and
care. There was still no one in the house but her and her father; the
same stillness reigned everywhere--the same air of dejection--the same
goustiness in the large empty dwelling. On asking her how her father
was, she replied, mournfully, that he had scarcely ever been out of
his bed since my last visit; that he lay, night and day, reading the
books I had sent him; that he had eaten very little meat, and had
fallen several times into dreadful fits of groaning, and talking to
himself. She added that he felt, at times, disinclined to see her; but
at others, his affection for her rose to such a height, that he flung
his arms about her neck, and wept like a child on her bosom. She had
proposed to him, she said, to bring some person into the house; but he
got into a violent rage when she mentioned it, and said he would expel
the first intruder, whether man or woman. She had therefore been
compelled to remain alone. She had lain at the back of his room-door
every night, watching his motions, whereby, in addition to her grief,
she had caught a violent rheumatism, which had stricken into her
bo