Miss Sandford
was ill the following day, and, in spite of the doctors, a fever set in.
Her sister-in-law was assiduous in her attentions, and Greenleaf called
daily with inquiries and tender messages. While thus occupied, he had
little time to consider the real state of his feelings towards the new
love, still less to reflect upon his conduct towards the old. For the
first time in his life he became a coward. If he meant to abide by his
last engagement, honor should have led him to break the unwelcome news
to Alice as best he might, and extricate himself from his false and
embarrassing position. If he still loved the girl of his first choice,
and felt that his untruth to her was only the result of a transient,
sensuous passion, it was equally plain that he must resolutely break
away from the beautiful tempter. But he oscillated, pendulum-like,
between the two. When Marcia began to recover, and he was allowed to see
her in her chamber, the influence she had at first exerted returned upon
him with double force. In her helplessness, she appealed powerfully
to the chivalric sentiment which man feels towards the dependent; her
tones, softened by affection and tremulous from weakness, thrilled his
soul; and the touch of her hand was electric. When he returned to his
studio, as he thought of the trustful, unsuspecting, generous heart of
Alice, he was smitten with a pang of remorse too keen to be borne. He
tried to look at her picture, but the face was to him like the sight of
a reproving angel.
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