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How soon Our new-born light Attains to full-aged noon! And this, how soon to grey-haired night! We spring, we bud, we blossom, and we blast, Ere we can count our days—our days they flee so fast.".

was not an hour absent from Guido's room; but on her return, a deathlike sickness came over her as she marked the great change that had taken place in him. The face had suddenly fallen in, the temples were sunk, and the blue and livid mouth seemed unwarmed by the breath that still faintly struggled forth. His wasted hands were stretched out, and worked with a quick and convulsive motion, as if catching some small substances which kept eluding their grasp; while his closed eyes ever and anon opened feebly, and then shut again—they appeared to ask when they should close for ever.

A slant ray of golden sunshine entered the chamber; it drew nearer and nearer as the hour went by, till it fell on Guido's bed. The invalid