Tales and Novels — Volume 03: BelindaEdgeworth, Maria
General
Tales and Novels — Volume 03: Belinda
Edgeworth, Maria
Courtship -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
The change in Lady Delacour’s manner of life, in the hours and the
company that she kept, contributed much to her recovery.[9] She was no
longer in continual anxiety to conceal the state of her health from the
world. She had no secret to keep--no part to act; her reconciliation
with her husband and with his friends restored her mind to ease and
self-complacency. Her little Helena was a source of daily pleasure; and
no longer conscious of neglecting her daughter, she no longer feared
that the affections of her child should be alienated. Dr. X----, well
aware that the passions have a powerful influence over the body, thought
it full as necessary, in some cases, to attend to the mind as to the
pulse. By conversing with Lady Delacour, and by combining hints and
circumstances, he soon discovered what had lately been the course of
her reading, and what impression it had made on her imagination.
Mrs. Marriott, indeed, assisted him with her opinion concerning _the
methodistical books_; and when he recollected the forebodings of death
which her ladyship had felt, and the terror with which she had been
seized on the night of Mrs. Freke’s adventure, he was convinced that
superstitious horrors hung upon his patient’s spirits, and affected her
health. To argue on religious subjects was not his province, much less
his inclination; but he was acquainted with a person qualified by his
profession and his character ‘to minister to a mind diseased,’ and he
resolved on the first favourable opportunity to introduce this gentleman
to her ladyship.
One morning Lady Delacour was complaining to Belinda, that the books in
the library were in dreadful confusion. “My lord has really a very fine
library,” said she; “but I wish he had half as many books twice as well
arranged: I never can find any thing I want. Dr. X----, I wish to heaven
you could recommend a librarian to my lord--not a chaplain, observe.”
“Why not a chaplain, may I ask your ladyship?” said the doctor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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