These she treasured in her mind, dwelling on them often in her thoughts
and repeating them to those sightseers who cared to hear them. Her
duties were not arduous, but she did not regain her strength, and in her
grandfather's mind sprang up a solicitude about her which never left
him. From the time of his awakening to her weakness, never did he have
any care for himself, any thought of his own comfort, which could
distract his attention from the gentle object of his love and care, He
would follow her up and down, waiting till she should tire, and lean
upon his arm--he would sit opposite to her, content to watch and look,
until she raised her head and smiled upon him as of old--he would
discharge by stealth those household duties which tasked her powers too
heavily--he would rise in the night to listen to her breathing in her
sleep. He who knows all, can only know what hopes and fears and thoughts
of deep affection were in that one disordered brain, and what a change
had fallen upon the poor old man.
Weeks crept on--sometimes the child, exhausted, would pass whole
evenings on a couch beside the fire. At such times, the schoolmaster
would read aloud to her, and seldom an evening passed but the bachelor
came in and took his turn at reading. During the daytime the child was
mostly out of doors, and all the strangers who came to see the church,
praised the child's beauty and sense, and all the neighbors, and all the
villagers, and the very schoolboys grew to have a fondness for
poor Nell.
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