all my motions, and turned my beloved task of nursing my friend to a work

of pain and irritation. Never did any woman appear so entirely made of

mind, as the Countess of Windsor. Her passions had subdued her appetites,

even her natural wants; she slept little, and hardly ate at all; her body

was evidently considered by her as a mere machine, whose health was

necessary for the accomplishment of her schemes, but whose senses formed no

part of her enjoyment. There is something fearful in one who can thus

conquer the animal part of our nature, if the victory be not the effect of

consummate virtue; nor was it without a mixture of this feeling, that I

beheld the figure of the Countess awake when others slept, fasting when I,

abstemious naturally, and rendered so by the fever that preyed on me, was

forced to recruit myself with food. She resolved to prevent or diminish my

opportunities of acquiring influence over her children, and circumvented my

plans by a hard, quiet, stubborn resolution, that seemed not to belong to

flesh and blood. War was at last tacitly acknowledged between us. We had

many pitched battles, during which no word was spoken, hardly a look was

interchanged, but in which each resolved not to submit to the other. The

Countess had the advantage of position; so I was vanquished, though I would

not yield.

I became sick at heart. My countenance was painted with the hues of ill

health and vexation. Adrian and Idris saw this; they attributed it to my

long watching and anxiety; they urged me to rest, and take care of myself,

while I most truly assured them, that my best medicine was their good

wishes; those, and the assured convalescence of my friend, now daily more

apparent. The faint rose again blushed on his cheek; his brow and lips lost

The Last Man