Three months passed away in this delightful intercourse, when my aunt fell ill.  I passed a whole month in her chamber nursing her, but her disease was mortal and she died, leaving me for some time inconsolable, Death is so dreadful to the living;[20] the chains of habit are so strong even when affection does not link them that the heart must be agonized when they break.  But my father was beside me to console me and to drive away bitter memories by bright hopes:  methought that it was sweet to grieve that he might dry my tears.

Then again he distracted my thoughts from my sorrow by comparing it with his despair when he lost my mother.  Even at that time I shuddered at the picture he drew of his passions:  he had the imagination of a poet, and when he described the whirlwind that then tore his feelings he gave his words the impress of life so vividly that I believed while I trembled.  I wondered how he could ever again have entered into the offices of life after his wild thoughts seemed to have given him affinity with the unearthly; while he spoke so tremendous were the ideas which he conveyed that it appeared as if the human heart were far too bounded for their conception.  His feelings seemed better fitted for a spirit whose habitation is the earthquake and the volcano than for one confined to a mortal body and human lineaments.  But these were merely memories; he was changed since then.  He was now all love, all softness; and when I raised my eyes in wonder at him as he spoke the smile on his lips told me that his heart was possessed by the gentlest passions.

Two months after my aunt’s death we removed to London where I was led by my father to attend to deeper studies than had before occupied me.  My improvement was his delight; he was with me during all my studies and assisted or joined with me in every lesson.  We saw a great deal of society, and no day passed that my father did not endeavour to embellish by some new enjoyment.  The tender attachment that he bore me, and the love and veneration with which I returned it cast a charm over every moment.  The hours were slow for each minute was employed; we lived more in one week than many do in the course of several months and the variety and novelty of our pleasures gave zest to each.

We perpetually made excursions together.  And whether it were to visit beautiful scenery, or to see fine pictures, or sometimes for no object but to seek amusement as it might chance to arise, I was always happy when near my father.  It was a subject of regret to me whenever we were joined by a third person, yet if I turned with a disturbed look towards my father, his eyes fixed on me and beaming with tenderness instantly restored joy to my heart.  O, hours of intense delight!  Short as ye were ye are made as long to me as a whole life when looked back upon through the mist of grief that rose immediately after as if to shut ye from my view.  Alas! ye were the last of happiness that I ever enjoyed; a few,