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 struggle against the malady that oppressed her.

"I reproached myself incessantly as the cause of her disorder; I would have left the house which I had infected with melancholy, but she protested violently against my design, and I was compelled to submit. Mr. D'Alenberg could assign no other probable idea for her distress of mind, than that she had deceived herself, and was actually warmly attached to the unworthy Count Wolfran."

"Impossible," exclaimed Ferdinand, warmly.—"A mind pure and exalted as her's, could not, for a moment, entertain a preference for such a wretch."

"The event," resumed Louisa, "justifies your assertion. As I felt conscious that her unhappiness, from whatever cause it proceeded, must originate from me, I tried to assume a new character, to stifle my own feelings, and to cover a breaking heart under the mask of cheerfulness. Every effort of mine was exerted to amuse her. We went to Stutgard, compelled her to go into company,