Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/188

 me at a distance, and the happy period of my deliverance was yet perhaps very remote, still I occupied myself with a variety of plans, to bring it imperceptibly nearer.

"At the same time care was taken to keep off every thing that could render me irksome. Rural fêtes, the freedom of a select company of flattering and insinuating women and amiable young men, were to finish with laughter and graces what had been planned and begun under such serious circumstances. All breathed a general, half-apparent and delicately concealed effort to please me, and to anticipate my wishes before they even existed.

"There actually were moments, in which I felt myself led, as it were by enchantment, to return their friendly advances. I became more candid, and had not the few hours of their vigilance weakened the impression of those of their assiduity and unremitting attention, I could scarce have defended myself from yielding to a delirium which must have plunged me into everlasting misery.