"If you are not better, by and by I shall send for the doctor and see if he can do anything for you, though, in such cases…"
"No, no," said the young girl, frightened, interrupting her aunt abruptly, "I will not see the doctor, he can do nothing for me."
"In fact, you are right; a husband, I think, is the best cure for such ailments; and as we are speaking about it I think there is no reason for putting off your marriage any longer. You are young—it is true—but like all the girls of our family, precociously developed."
The young girl did not utter a word, she hid her face in the pillow and cried bitterly.
The aunt, who knew how hysterical girls feel when their whole system is upset by the return of the courses, made her take a few drops of opium, and then left the room, thinking that rest and quietness were the best of sedatives.
A day of agony followed for the poor girl. Every noise jarred upon her nerves, the sound of the round-about drove her to distraction. If she dropped off to sleep, she woke all of a sudden, thinking that somebody had come to
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