I don't doubt it. He had wandered
about, as I gather, houseless for a couple of days and nights. It was
in December, too. Some one found him, on a rainy night, lying in the
street, drenched and burning with fever, and had him taken to the
hospital. It appears that he had always cherished a strange affection
for me, though I had grown away from him; and in his wild ravings he
constantly mentioned my name, and they sent for me. That was our first
meeting after two years. I found him in the hospital--dying. Heaven
can witness that I felt all my old love for him return then, but he
was delirious, and never recognized me. And, Nathalie, his hair,--it
had been coal-black, and he wore it very long,--he wouldn't let them
cut it either; and as they knew no skill could save him, they let him
have his way,--his hair was then as white as snow! God alone knows what
that brain must have suffered to blanch hair which had been as black
as the wing of a raven!"
He covered his eyes with his hand, and sat silently.
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