conduct, and again and again have I resolved to gain
the mastery, and often, when I begin to have confidence
in my own powers of control, this exclusive jealous
disposition will suddenly rise and put to naught all
my resolutions of amendment. If you could know
what I endure from it you would pity instead of blame
me. But let us part friends, and I will try to
exercise more reason for the future.” We
talked long together, for the morrow would again separate
us, and it might be long before we would meet again.
I had spent a happy month in the cool shady village
of Elmwood, and returned to my labors with body and
mind both strengthened and refreshed.
About the middle of October, Robert Dalton was taken
ill. His disease seemed a kind of low fever,
and in a short time he was completely prostrated.
All the leisure I could possibly command I spent at
his bedside, and many hours did I forego sleep that
I might minister to his wants. The family with
whom he boarded were very attentive, but I knew he
was pleased with my attention, and exerted myself to
spend as much time with him as possible. Several
days passed away with little apparent change in his
symptoms, but he grew extremely weak. His physician
was of the opinion that he was tired out from long
and close application to his business; but thought
he would soon recover under the necessary treatment.
One evening, when he had been about two weeks ill,
I went as I had often done to sit by him for a portion
of the night; after the family had all retired, I
administered a quieting cordial left by the doctor,
and shading the lamp that the light might not disturb
him, I opened a book, thinking he would sleep.
He lay very quiet, and I supposed him to be asleep,
and was becoming interested in the volume before me
when he softly called my name. I stepped quickly
to his bedside, he took my hand saying, “sit
down close to me Walter, I have something to say to
you.” I took a seat near him, and after
a few moments’ silence he said: “You
may perhaps think I am nervous and fanciful, when
I tell you I feel certain I shall never recover from
this illness; the physician tells me I will soon be
up again, but such will not be the case.”
Observing that I was much startled, he said, “Do
not be alarmed Walter, but compose yourself and listen
to me. My parents and one sister live at a distance
of four hundred miles from here. I have deferred
informing them of my illness, as my employer, who has
much confidence in the skill of my physician, thought
it unwise to alarm them needlessly, and I now fear
that I have put it off too long, for I think I shall
not live to see them. I intend in the morning
requesting my employer to send a message for my father
to hasten to me at once, but I fear it is too late.”
Much alarmed, I enquired if he felt himself growing
worse, or if he wished me to summon his physician.
He replied, “I feel no worse, but from the first
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