Matilda had an additional motive for wishing to return to the Rocks: she was recalled there by an uneasiness, the extent of which she would hardly own to herself, and yet that filled her affectionate heart with the most painful apprehensions. She had, for some time past, observed her father's health beginning to decline. A cold, caught by imprudently staying out too long on a botanical ramble, had brought on an attack on his lungs, attended with a most distressing cough. Though the most alarming symptoms were now all removed, his strength, from that time, had visibly decreased; he could not take the long walks in which he used to indulge; and was sometimes for whole days confined to his couch: during this period it was Matilda's delight to relieve Mrs. Melbourne from the fatigue of incessant attendance. She read to her father, from such books as she knew were to his taste, the passages in which he particularly delighted. She arranged, and kept in order, the various collections, of which he was no longer able to make the daily review himself. Or, if she was ever from his side, it was when, bounding through the rocks and glades, with the grace and activity of a wood-nymph, she brought him home such specimens of plants and mosses as even winter could afford, and such as she knew he would have selected.

Sometimes she felt her spirits droop, from the excess of her filial anxiety; but, more frequently, hope presented her with the bright side of the picture; Mr. Melbourne / had got through the severe illness that had attacked him in the beginning of the winter, though of a nature, at once, irritating, and dangerous.