One of its principal signs was the fixed idea as to Midsummer Day.

It never occurred to her as possible that her life should be prolonged beyond that limit.

Every night, as she dragged herself up the steep little staircase to her room, she checked off the day which had just passed from the days she had still to live.

She had made all her arrangements; she had even sewed with her own hands, and that without any sense of special horror, but rather in the provident peasant way, the dress in which she was to be carried to her grave.
At last one day, her father, coming unexpectedly into the yard, saw her carrying a heavy pail of water from the pump.

Something stirred within him, and he went up to her and forcibly took it from her.