past. Upon her only rested his feeble gaze ; only when
she sat by him was he satisfied; only her smile cheered
his pale face. As the child watches its mother, so his
eye followed all her motions, and, though he said little,
the most entire devotion spoke in his very silence. As
a rosy twilight, after a stormy day, lends the liveliest
coloring to nature, now breathing in new creating life,
so now was spread over Godber's whole being, a pe-
culiar gentleness, tenderness, and submissiveness. This
change in his feelings formerly so much more passionate,
arose, in part, from a really deeper affection for Idalia,
and in part, from the necessity not indeed clearly un-
derstood by himself, of weaving his whole being into
hers, in order to secure peace of mind.
This deep feeling on the part of Godber was not
without an important influence on the heart of Idalia.
She had never been so near true affection as now. This
unusual, unexpected softness quite foreign to her char-
acter, that entire fusion of every thought and feeling
with the beloved object, attracted her instinctively, and
there were hours when she even experienced something
similar within herself. At such times she would sing,
accompanying herself with her lute which she played
with superior skill, and whose preservation she owed to
the care with which she put it away after use on board
the ship, for she prized it as a means of displaying her
talent, and once every day at least, must she sing, at
Godber's request, the following song:
My former self, truly,
I know not again ;
Yet unlike the present
How could I have been?
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