, 1864-07-11

uldHueTs Ot u SeuJlCWOIiidn Win lHC kiuu-
ness and frankness which pride too often
displaces from the hearts and faces of the
rich, to make room for the haughtiness
which is deemed the badge of the great.
BY her side sat young woman about
twenty years Of age. (whom, in the course
of conversation. she called Angelina) her
daughter, possessed Of what, to the eye of
appeared extraordinary beauty, but which,
to my professional observation, was only
the extreme delicacy, the pure hyacinthine
tint, the clear transparent skin, and the fair
auburn hair of the victim of strumOus
habit, which she had received by hereditary
right from her mother, who presented the
same brilliant but fallacious appearances Of
the characteristics of a beautiful blond.
The yivacity and sensibility so often found
in young womenOf her peculiar constitution
were also apparent; suggesting to my mind,
as they must do to every person who has
any claims to feeling, the regret that quail
tiles so exquisits should so often be found
associated with, if not resulting from, an
unnatural state of the system of the body.
Mr.. H was, they Informed me, ailing
in very slight degree; but my inquiries
were incapable Of extracting the precise
nature of his complaint; the old lady in
sisting upon its being nothing but an at
tack of spleen, and the young one, in her
peculiar, sprightly way, urging, with smil-
ing countenanee, that her fathers disease
was pure ill-nature-a complaint which she
feared no doctor could cure. / tried to un-
deceive her, and told her that we possessed
some secrets, one Of which was the power
of making men laugh as well as dance; but
| was soon told, by the old lady, that her
daughter Angelina was not behind me in
that respect; for that she not only possessed
that power, but exercised it every hour of
the day-a compliment, she thought, to the
victim of high-toned nerves, but, in my
opinion, the description of misfortune.
/ found Mr. Il sitting in his bed
room, which was purposely darkencd, by
halfelosed shutters, TO dismal gloom.
He was in his morning gown, with his head
enyelopcd in large rolls Of flannel, and his
feet eneased in pair Of yellow Morocco
slippers, placed on footstoOl before large
fire, into which he seemed 10 be looking
with that intent gaze which the winter COM
forter often charms from the victim Of en-
nui. As he turned his face upon me when
l entered, i got read to me at once the enig-
maticat accounts of his wife and daughter.
in the yellow bilious tinge which covered
all the white part of his eyes, and impaired
to the pupil that heavy, lethargic, and
sleepy look which accompanies, as sure
companion, ailcases Of morbid melancholy.
arising from diseased state Of the liver
but, in many instances, alternates with sud-
den expressions Of apprehension and fear,
as If the patient dreaded the approach Of
personal danger His jaws were elongated
by the pressure Of dependency, whose in
Auence could BE- also traced in the aaecid
muscles, hanging eyebrows, dropping head,
and all the other well-known symptoms Of
depressed and clouded mind, into which
the radiant bow Of hope has been unable to
send any Of its many-colorcd rays. / OBJ
served, at first, no indications Of the NOR
bid, hare-eyed look Of terror and apprehen-
sion which, in patients Of this class, / al
ways search for with great solicitude, as be-
ing a sign Of something much more serious
than what the vulgar understand by hypo-
cbondria aud indicating that advancement
Of the progress Of the real malady, when
it lays its dreadful grasp on some Of the
faculties of the mind. But was assured,
from the otheradyanced symptoms exhibited
to mo, that there was great danger Of the
disease Of the patient reaching, If it had
not already reached, that unhappy climax ;
and my attention beloved to BE objected to
further indications Of a more decided char
acter, generally elected by q conversation,
wherein the patient falls naturally into the
train Of thought suggested BY the state Of
his feelings, and best calculated for rousiDg
them, forcing out theexpressiOn of his SEN
timents, whether morbid or natural, and
showing the true state Of bis disease.
I was surprised at hearing him state,
somewhat snllenly, that he bad not eeht Tor
mel but l mentally recarrcd to the CONVEX.
sation had with his wife aud daughter,
and surmounted this difficulty, at the ex-
pense Of my pride, BY stating, jocularly,
that the solicithde Of an afIectionate con-
sort was, through the love and gratitude Of
a good husband q sufficient authority for
the attendance Of adoctor-a remark which
was responded to by.a splenetic growl, no
compauied BY the hasty cholerie statement
(disproved BY his gown and fannels) that
there was nothing the matter with him.
But his natural politeness. overcome for a
moment by his disease, vindicated its au-
tlority, and produced an expression Of 70
gret that he had allowed his changed tent
per, as he called it, to hurry him into rude
ness; fault which he was never guilty Of
until latlgrly, that SOME cloud having coiiie
over his mind, had obscured his perceptions
Of etiquette, as well as destroyed the con-
tented and happy tone of mind he Used d
enjoy in the midst Of his prosperity. ]
was easily appeased, and soon got him -
gaged in conversation; avoiding al direct
alldsion to his ailment--Whlch, in SO far as
Il regarded its true character, was clearly q
secret to himself-and following him into
those trains Of thought which seemed to
produce the strongest interest in him; though
Of little importance to myself
breaking Of. with the greatest abrupt
neas, from subject started by himself, he
pronounced, in doloroas tone Of voice. ac-
cdmpahied with a dsep-dfa1n sigh that
heayed all his chest. the namg Uf an old