But this somnambulism would every now and then change and pass into
a consciousness which I can only compare with that of a child. But
no child that I have ever seen was so bewitchingly child-like as you
were. It was this that made your presence such a priceless boon to
me."
'"Priceless boon, Mr. D'Arcy!" I said. "How could such a being as you
describe be a priceless boon to any one?"
'"I will tell you," he replied. "Even before that great sorrow which
has made me the loneliest man upon the earth--even in the days when
my animal spirits were considered at times almost boisterous, I was
always at intervals subject to periods of great depression, or
rather, I should say, to periods of _ennui_. I must either be
painting or reading or writing. I had not the precious faculty of
being able on occasions to sit and let the rich waters of life flow
over me. I would yearn for amusement, and search in vain for some
object to amuse me. When you first came I was deeply interested in so
extraordinary a case as yours; and after a while, when the acuteness
of my curiosity and the poignancy of my sympathy for you had abated,
you became to me a joy, as a child is a joy in the eyes of its
parents.
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