She has suffered some long-continued
mental trial, some wearing and terrible suspense--and she has broken
down under it. It might have helped me if I could have known what the
nature of the trial was, and how long or how short a time elapsed before
she sank under it. In that hope I spoke."
"When you told me she was dangerously ill," said Kirke, "did you mean
danger to her reason or to her life?"
"To both," replied Mr. Merrick. "Her whole nervous system has given way;
all the ordinary functions of her brain are in a state of collapse.
I can give you no plainer explanation than that of the nature of the
malady. The fever which frightens the people of the house is merely the
effect. The cause is what I have told you. She may lie on that bed for
weeks to come; passing alternately, without a gleam of consciousness,
from a state of delirium to a state of repose. You must not be alarmed
if you find her sleep lasting far beyond the natural time. That sleep
is a better remedy than any I can give, and nothing must disturb it. All
our art can accomplish is to watch her, to help her with stimulants from
time to time, and to wait for what Nature will do."
"Must she remain here? Is there no hope of our being able to remove her
to a better place?"
"No hope whatever, for the present.
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