Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/32

8 was not this idolised grandson of hers the only offspring left by her departed children, whom excess of love had early slain?

Kehlmark not only recovered his health, but found himself in possession of quite a new constitution. Not only did a rapid convalescence restore to him his former strength but, to his surprise, he saw himself growing taller, walking with a more elastic step, getting a bigger chest and harder muscles and gaining in flesh and fulness of blood. With this rejuvenescence of the body there came to Kehlmark a frankness and ingenuousness of the soul, of the warmth and tenderness of which, his over-studious and reflective mind had until then been wholly unaware.

Although he had formerly looked with contempt upon athletic exercises, he now applied himself to vigorous training, and in the end came to be quite an athlete. Far from shrinking, as before, from the risk of violent exertion, he distinguished himself by his boldness and enthusiasm. He, who in order to save himself the fatigue of a climb in the Jura, had often hidden away in the subterraneous passages, amongst the heating apparatus of the ancient bathing