Any other but you
would have borne me malice, and let me perish, and said, 'It serves
her right.'"
"Malice! Miss Lucy. What for, in Heaven's name?"
"For--for the affront I put upon you; for the--the honor I declined."
"Hate cannot lie alongside love in a true heart."
"I see it cannot in a noble one. And then you are so generous. You
have never once recurred to that unfortunate topic; yet you have
gained a right to request me--to reconsider--Mr. Dodd, you have saved
my life!!"
"What! do you praise me because I don't take a mean advantage? That
would not be behaving like a man."
"I don't know that. You overrate your sex--and mine. We don't deserve
such generosity. The proof is, we reward those who are not
so--delicate."
"I don't trouble my head about your sex. They are nothing to me, and
never will be. If you think I have done my duty like a man, and as
much like a gentleman as my homely education permits, that is enough
for me, and I shall sail for China as happy as anything on earth can
make me now."
Lucy answered this by crying gently, silently, tenderly.
"Don't ye cry. Have I said something to vex you?"
"Oh no, no."
"Are you alarmed still?"
"Oh, no; I have such faith in you."
"Then go to sleep again, like a lamb."
"I will; then I shall not tease you with my conversation."
"Now there is a way to put it."
"Forgive me."
"That I will, if you will take some repose. There, I will lash you to
my arm with this handkerchief; then you can lie the other way, and
hold on by the handkerchief--there.
Pages:
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420