ing and comfort to me; for she never would have come to this very
spot but for my good.

Top-full of these thoughts, I re-entered my grotto, shut my door and
lighted my lamp; when going to my Patty (as I delighted to fancy her),
I thought I saw her eyes stir a little. I then set the lamp farther off
for fear of offending them if she should look up; and warming the last
glass I had reserved of my Madeira, I carried it to her, but she never
stirred. I now supposed the fall had absolutely killed her, and was
prodigiously grieved; when laying my hand on her breast I perceived the
fountain of life had some motion. This gave me infinite pleasure; so,
not despairing, I dipped my finger in the wine and moistened her lips
with it two or three times, and I imagined they opened a little. Upon
this I bethought me, and taking a teaspoon, I gently poured a few drops
of the wine by that means into her mouth. Finding she swallowed it, I
poured in another spoonful, and another, till I brought her to herself
so well as to be able to sit up. All this I did by a glimmering light
which the lamp afforded from a distant part of the room, where I had
placed it, as I have said, out of her sight.

I then spoke to her, and asked divers questions, as if she had really
been Patty and understood me; in return of which she uttered a language
I had no idea of, though in the most musical tone, and with the sweetest
accent I ever heard. It grieved me I could not understand her. However,
thinking she might like to be on her feet, I went to lift her off the
bed, when she felt to my touch in the oddest manner imaginable; for
while in one respect it was as though she had been cased up in whalebone
it was at the same time as soft and warm as if she had been naked.

I then took her in my arms and carried her into my ante-chamber again,
where I would fain have entered into conversation, but found she and
I could make nothing of it together, unless we could understand one
another's speech. It is very strange my dream should have prepossessed
me so of Patty, and of the alteration of her countenance, that I could
by no means persuade myself the person I had with me was not she;
though, upon a deliberate comparison, Patty, as pleasing as she always
was to my taste, would no more come up to this fair creature than a
coarse ale-wife would to Venus herself.

You may imagine we stared heartily at each other, and I doubted not but
she wondered as much as I by what m