"
During this petition, which in other circumstances would have
moved me to laughter but now only irritated me, a subtle change
seemed to come to the apparently lifeless girl to make me hope.
The small hand in mine felt not so icy cold, and though no
faintest colour had come to the face, its pallor had lost
something of its deathly waxen appearance; and now the compressed
lips had relaxed a little and seemed ready to part. I laid my
finger-tips on her heart and felt, or imagined that I felt, a
faint fluttering; and at last I became convinced that her heart
was really beating.
I turned my eyes on the old man, still bending forward, intently
watching for the sign he had asked her to make. My anger and
disgust at his gross earthy egoism had vanished. "Let us thank
God, old man," I said, the tears of joy half choking my
utterance. "She lives--she is recovering from her fit."
He drew back, and on his knees, with bowed head, murmured a
prayer of thanks to Heaven.
Together we continued watching her face for half an hour longer,
I still holding her in my arms, which could never grow weary of
that sweet burden, waiting for other, surer signs of returning
life; and she seemed now like one that had fallen into a
profound, death-like sleep which must end in death.
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