Thus his own sorrows, or the shapes copied from nature that dwelt in his mind with beauty greater than their own, occupied our talk while I railed in my own griefs with cautious secresy.  If for a moment he shewed curiosity, my eyes fell, my voice died away and my evident suffering made him quickly endeavour to banish the ideas he had awakened; yet he for ever mingled consolation in his talk, and tried to soften my despair by demonstrations of deep sympathy and compassion.  “We are both unhappy—­” he would say to me; “I have told you my melancholy tale and we have wept together the loss of that lovely spirit that has so cruelly deserted me; but you hide your griefs:  I do not ask you to disclose them, but tell me if I may not console you.  It seems to me a wild adventure to find in this desart one like you quite solitary:  you are young and lovely; your manners are refined and attractive; yet there is in your settled melancholy, and something, I know not what, in your expressive eyes that seems to seperate you from your kind:  you shudder; pardon me, I entreat you but I cannot help expressing this once at least the lively interest I feel in your destiny.

“You never smile:  your voice is low, and you utter your words as if you were afraid of the slight sound they would produce:  the expression of awful and intense sorrow never for a moment fades from your countenance.  I have lost for ever the loveliest companion that any man could ever have possessed, one who rather appears to have been a superior spirit who by some strange accident wandered among us earthly creatures, than as belonging to our kind.  Yet I smile, and sometimes I speak almost forgetful of the change I have endured.  But your sad mien never alters; your pulses beat and you breathe, yet you seem already to belong to another world; and sometimes, pray pardon my wild thoughts, when you touch my hand I am surprised to find your hand warm when all the fire of life seems extinct within you.

“When I look upon you, the tears you shed, the soft deprecating look with which you withstand enquiry; the deep sympathy your voice expresses when I speak of my lesser sorrows add to my interest for you.  You stand here shelterless[.] You have cast yourself from among us and you wither on this wild plain fo[r]lorn and helpless:  some dreadful calamity must have befallen you.  Do not turn from me; I do not ask you to reveal it:  I only entreat you to listen to me and to become familiar with the voice of consolation and kindness.  If pity, and admiration, and gentle affection can wean you from despair let me attempt the task.  I cannot see your look of deep grief without endeavouring to restore you to happier feelings.  Unbend your brow; relax the stern melancholy of your regard; permit a friend, a sincere, affectionate friend, I will be one, to convey some relief, some momentary pause to your sufferings.