CHAPTER XXIX 426
CHAPTER XXIX
The recollection of about three days and nights succeeding this is very dim in my mind . I can recall some sensations felt in that interval ; but few thoughts framed , and no actions performed . I knew I was in a small room and in a narrow bed . To that bed I seemed to have grown ; I lay on it motionless as a stone ; and to have torn me from it would have been almost to kill me . I took no note of the lapse of time -- of the change from morning to noon , from noon to evening . I observed when any one entered or left the apartment : I could even tell who they were ; I could understand what was said when the speaker stood near to me ; but I could not answer ; to open my lips or move my limbs was equally impossible . Hannah , the servant , was my most frequent visitor . Her coming disturbed me . I had a feeling that she wished me away : that she did not understand me or my circumstances ; that she was prejudiced against me . Diana and Mary appeared in the chamber once or twice a day . They would whisper sentences of this sort at my bedside -
" It is very well we took her in ."
" Yes ; she would certainly have been found dead at the door in the morning had she been left out all night . I wonder what she has gone through ?"
" Strange hardships , I imagine -- poor , emaciated , pallid wanderer ?"
" She is not an uneducated person , I should think , by her manner of speaking ; her accent was quite pure ; and the clothes she took off , though splashed and wet , were little worn and fine ."
" She has a peculiar face ; fleshless and haggard as it is , I rather like it ; and when in good health and animated , I can fancy her physiognomy would be agreeable ."
Never once in their dialogues did I hear a syllable of regret at the hospitality they had extended to me , or of suspicion of , or aversion to , myself . I was comforted .