Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/171

 unimpeded duration, Elmira, I soon perceived, to be in a lingering, sickly condition, the consequence of her former child-bed, and her disorder, which in defiance of all remedies, rather augmented than diminished, cost me many a tear—many a sorrowful hour. Herself was but too sensible of it, and the rapid decline of her health, pierced only the more visibly through all the efforts she would make, to conceal it from me. Often did I rouse her from the irresistible gloom that overcast the blossoms of her youthful days, but, alas! I only roused her to relapse the next moment the deeper. The choice she made of her books in the little library, grew more serious and melancholy every day, and her guitar, inanimate to festive lays, resounded only the heart-breaking strain of elegiacs and funeral dirges.

This is also the reason, why I studiously avoided all questions relative to her story since our parting. She never seemed to elude any opportunity to dwell on its details, and would frequently recount some of them of her own accord—but then, her heart seemed so full that