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Day after day, week after week, passed away on my return to

Geneva; and I could not collect the courage to recommence my

work. I feared the vengeance of the disappointed fiend, yet I was

unable to overcome my repugnance to the task which was enjoined

me. I found that I could not compose a female without again

devoting several months to profound study and laborious

disquisition. I had heard of some discoveries having been made by

an English philosopher, the knowledge of which was material to my

success, and I sometimes thought of obtaining my father's consent

to visit England for this purpose; but I clung to every pretence

of delay and shrank from taking the first step in an undertaking

whose immediate necessity began to appear less absolute to me. A

change indeed had taken place in me; my health, which had

hitherto declined, was now much restored; and my spirits, when

unchecked by the memory of my unhappy promise, rose

proportionably.