After I had lived abroad for years, I returned a broken-down young man, prematurely old, my constitution a perfect wreck.

A life of folly and dissipation was telling fearfully upon me.

My friends shrank from me in dismay.

I was sick nigh unto death, and had it not been for Marie's care I am certain that I should have died.

She followed me down to the borders of the grave, and won me back to life and health.