[Villette by Charlotte Bronte]@TWC D-Link book
Villette

CHAPTER XXI
10/33

Deity unquestioned, thine essence foils decay! This daughter of Heaven remembered me to-night; she saw me weep, and she came with comfort: "Sleep," she said.

"Sleep, sweetly--I gild thy dreams!" She kept her word, and watched me through a night's rest; but at dawn Reason relieved the guard.

I awoke with a sort of start; the rain was dashing against the panes, and the wind uttering a peevish cry at intervals; the night-lamp was dying on the black circular stand in the middle of the dormitory: day had already broken.

How I pity those whom mental pain stuns instead of rousing! This morning the pang of waking snatched me out of bed like a hand with a giant's gripe.

How quickly I dressed in the cold of the raw dawn! How deeply I drank of the ice-cold water in my carafe! This was always my cordial, to which, like other dram-drinkers, I had eager recourse when unsettled by chagrin.
Ere long the bell rang its _reveillee_ to the whole school.


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