But even this face did not dwell with pleasure in his memory,--it woke up confused and labouring associations of something weird and witchlike, of sorceresses and tymbesteres, of wild warnings screeched in his ear, of incantations and devilries and doom.

Impatient of these musings, he sought to leap from his bed, and was amazed that the leap subsided into a tottering crawl.

He found an ewer and basin, and his ablutions refreshed and invigorated him.

He searched for his raiment, and discovered it all except the mantle, dagger, hat, and girdle; and while looking for these, his eye fell on an old tarnished steel mirror.

He started as if he had seen his ghost; was it possible that his hardy face could have waned into that pale and almost femininely delicate visage?
With the pride (call it not coxcombry) that then made the care of person the distinction of gentle birth, he strove to reduce into order the tangled locks of the long hair, of which a considerable portion above a part that seemed peculiarly sensitive to the touch had been mercilessly clipped; and as he had just completed this task, with little satisfaction and much inward chafing at the lack of all befitting essences and perfumes, the door gently opened, and the fair face he had dreamed of appeared at the aperture.
The girl uttered a cry of astonishment and alarm at seeing the patient thus arrayed and convalescent, and would suddenly have retreated; but the Nevile advanced, and courteously taking her hand-- "Fair maiden," said he, "if, as I trow, I owe to thy cares my tending and cure--nay, it may be a life hitherto of little worth, save to myself--do not fly from my thanks.