There was so soft a demand upon my protection, so constant an appeal to my anxiety.
You know that my father's quick temper burns within me, that I am hot, and stern, and exacting; but one hasty word, one thought of myself, here were inexcusable.

So brief a time might be left for her earthly happiness,--could I embitter one moment?
All that feeling of uncertainty which should in prudence have prevented my love, increased it almost to a preternatural excess.

That which it is said mothers feel for an only child in sickness, I feel for Gertrude.

_My_ existence is not!--I exist in her! Her illness increased upon her at home; they have recommended travel.
She chose the course we were to pursue, and, fortunately, it was so familiar to me, that I have been enabled to brighten the way.

I am ever on the watch that she shall not know a weary hour; you would almost smile to see how I have roused myself from my habitual silence, and to find me--me, the scheming and worldly actor of real life--plunged back into the early romance of my boyhood, and charming the childish delight of Gertrude with the invention of fables and the traditions of the Rhine.
But I believe that I have succeeded in my object; if not, what is left to me?
_Gertrude is better!_--In that sentence what visions of hope dawn upon me! I wish you could have seen Gertrude before we left England; you might then have understood my love for her.