Hour by hour she gained strength under the powerful restoratives which were used, and still more from the wonderful elasticity of her temperament.  From the very first day, however, an indefinable terror of misgiving seized me as often as I heard her voice or looked into her eyes.  In vain I said to myself:  “It is the weakness after such terrible illness;” “it is only natural.”  I felt in the bottom of my heart that it was more.

On the fourth day she said suddenly, looking up at the picture of George Ware,—­

“Why!  Why is Cousin George’s picture in here?  Where is the Madonna?”

I replied:  “I moved it in here, dear, for you.  I thought you would like it.”

“No,” she said, “I like the Madonna best:  the dear little baby!  Please carry George back into my room where he belongs.”

My heart stood still with terror.  She had never called George Ware her cousin since their engagement.  She especially disliked any allusion to their relationship.  This was her first mention of his name, and it was in all respects just what it would have been a year before.  Dr. Fearing had forbidden us to allude to him, or to her wedding-day, or, in fact, to any subject calculated to arouse new trains of thought in her mind.  I wondered afterward that we did not understand from the first how he had feared that her brain might not fully recover itself, as the rest of her exquisitely organized body seemed fast doing.

Day after day passed.  Annie could sit up; could walk about her room; she gained in flesh and color and strength so rapidly that it was a marvel.  She was gentle and gay and loving; her old rare, sweet self in every little way and trait and expression; not a look, not a smile, not a tone was wanting; but it was the Annie of last year, and not of this.  She made no allusion to her wedding, the day for which had now passed.  She did not ask for George.  The whole year had dropped out of her memory; part of her brain was still diseased.  No human touch could venture to deal with it without the risk of the most terrible consequences.

Dr. Fearing’s face grew day by day more and more anxious; he was baffled; he was afraid.  He consulted the most eminent physicians who had had experience in diseases of the brain.  They all counseled patience, and advised against any attempt to hasten her recollections upon any point; they all had known similar cases, but never one so sharply defined or so painful as this.  Still they were unanimous in advising that nothing should be said to startle her; that all must be trusted to time.

Through these terrible days George Ware was braver than any one else.  His faith in the absoluteness of his hold on Annie was too great to be disturbed.  He was by nature as patient as he was resolute.  He had not wooed his wife for eighteen years to lose her now in any way except by death, he thought.  He comforted us all.

“Do be brave, sweet mother of Annie,” he used to say to my poor Aunt Ann; “all will be well.  It is nothing to me to wait another year, after having waited all these.  It is not even hard for me to go without seeing her, if that is best.”