London's Heart: A NovelFarjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
London's Heart: A Novel
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
London (England) -- Fiction
perfectly at rest, he said, she would not be subject to these
abstractions. His theory sufficiently accounted for her condition on
the night of her mother's death, but did not account for what occurred
afterwards. I knew of nothing that was agitating her, and so I told
him; but he only smiled, and said, 'You will probably know some day;
still waters run deep. Quiet as your granddaughter is, she is, from my
knowledge of her, capable of much deeper and stronger feeling than
most women.' And then he made me promise, the next time I found her in
this condition, to run round for him. 'It should not be allowed to
grow upon her,' he said, 'and I may be able to advise you better after
personal observation of her.' Last night the opportunity occurred. I
found Lily kneeling by her bed, dressed and asleep. I closed the door
softly upon her, and went for the doctor. 'Now,' he said, as we
hurried here, 'I do not think it well that she should hear a strange
voice, so I will not speak while I am in the room with her. But I may
wish you to say certain things to her, perhaps to ask a question or
two; I will write them in pencil, so that I shall have no occasion to
speak.' We found Lily in the same position--still kneeling by her
bedside. I did what I had done on the previous occasion, I called her
by name; but I had to place my hand upon her shoulder, and call her
again, before she rose. She followed me into this room, as she had
done before, and at my bidding sat down, resting her head upon her
hand. The doctor wrote upon paper, 'Speak to her in a gentle voice
upon indifferent subjects--about the weather, or anything that
suggests itself to you.' I obeyed, and she seemed to listen to what I
said. But the doctor wrote, She hears your voice, which harmonises
with her condition, as would the voice of any one that she loved; it
falls upon her senses like a fountain, but it is the sound only that
she hears--she does not understand your words. Appeal to her through
her affections, by speaking to her of some one whom she loves.' I said
then, 'Lily, I am going to speak to you about Alfred.' Her face
lighted up as I mentioned her brother's name, and she leant forward
eagerly. 'She hears and understands,' wrote the doctor, and then
desired me to say other things to her. But I must not tell you more of
the details of that interview, Felix; for the dear girl's sake, I must
not. The doctor told me, before he went away, that he was satisfied
that his theory was correct. 'She retires to her room,' he said, and
sits or kneels, as we found her to-night, in a state of wakefulness.
While in this position she muses upon something dear to her, and so
completely lost does she become in the contemplation, that she sinks
into slumber, and continues musing upon her thought even in her sleep.
This to a certain extent accounts for her being susceptible to outward
sound, and especially to the sound of voices that she loves. Her
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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