His recent disappointment, added
to a cold which he had caught, increased his feverish debility; yet
he adhered to the determination not to appropriate to his own
subsistence the few valuables he had assigned as a deposit for the
charges of his rent. During a fortnight he never tasted anything
better than bread and water; but this hermit's fare was accompanied
by the resigned thought that if it ended in death, his sufferings
would then be over, and the widow amply remunerated by what little of
his property remained.
In this state of body and mind he received a most painful shock, when
one evening, returning from a walk of many hours, in the place of his
little favorite, he met Mrs. Robson in tears at the door. She told
him William had been sickening all the day, and was now so delirious,
that neither she nor his sister could keep him quiet.
Thaddeus went to the side of the child's bed, where he lay gasping on
the pillow, held clown by the crying Nanny. The count touched his
cheek.
"Poor child!" exclaimed he; "he is in a high fever. Have you sent for
Mr. Vincent?"
"O, no; I had not the heart to leave him."
"Then I will go directly," returned Thaddeus "there is not a moment
to be lost."
The poor woman thanked him. Hastening through the streets with an
eagerness which nearly overset several of the foot-passengers, he
arrived at Lincoln's-Inn-fields; and in less than five minutes after
he quitted Mrs.
Pages:
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232