My description can give no idea how suddenly the fountain was thus tenanted , and how soon it was left desolate . I breathed ; and there was the face ! I held my breath ; and it was gone ! Had it passed away , or faded into nothing ? I doubted whether it had ever been . My sweet readers , what a dreamy and delicious hour did I spend , where that vision found and left me ! For a long time I sat perfectly still , waiting till it should reappear , and fearful that the slightest motion , or even the flutter of my breath , might frighten it away . Thus have I often started from a pleasant dream , and then kept quiet , in hopes to wile it back . Deep were my musings , as to the race and attributes of that ethereal being . Had I created her ? Was she the daughter of my fancy , akin to those strange shapes which peep under the lids of children 's eyes ? And did her beauty gladden me , for that one moment , and then die ? Or was she a water-nymph within the fountain , or fairy , or woodland goddess peeping over my shoulder , or the ghost of some forsaken maid , who had drowned herself for love ? Or , in good truth , had a lovely girl , with a warm heart , and lips that would bear pressure , stolen softly behind me , and thrown her image into the spring ? I watched and waited , but no vision came again . I departed , but with a spell upon me , which drew me back , that same afternoon , to the haunted spring . There was the water gushing , the sand sparkling , and the sunbeam glimmering . There the vision was not , but only a great frog , the hermit of that solitude , who immediately withdrew his speckled snout and made himself invisible , all except a pair of long legs , beneath a stone . Methought he had a devilish look ! I could have slain him !
Thus did the Vision leave me ; and many a doleful day succeeded XXXXX the parting moment .
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