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118 Francisca saw the change, and in a few weeks Algernon was almost startled by the change in her also; but hers was an external change—the bright cheek had lost its colour and outline, and she was wasted, even to emaciation. He was often absent from their villa, wandering, in all the restlessness of discontent, in the wild environs of Vesuvius; and on every return did he observe more alteration, when remorse urged to kindness, and he reproached himself bitterly for leaving her so much to solitude. Under this influence he returned suddenly and unexpectedly one day, and sought Francisca in a fit of repenting fondness; a faint moan made him enter the room, and there, on the bare rough pavement, knelt Francisca. A coarse dress of sackcloth strangely contrasted with her delicate shape—drops of blood were on the floor—and her slight hand yet held the scourge: a shriek told her recognition of Algernon, and she fell senseless on the ground. In her state of bodily weakness, the least sudden emotion was enough to bring on a crisis—and before night she was in a brain fever; from her ravings and a few questions he learnt the cause. She had marked his growing coldness, and, with the wild superstition of the ardent