"
"In solitude!" I stammered; then shyly asked:
"Did you not get my last letter, Thora?"
"What! the one in which you told me of Jessie's marriage to Captain
Gordon, and that the dominie had retired from his school, and that
you were promoted to captain, and had called your new boat the
Thora? Yes, certainly, I got it."
"But there was something else I said in it, Thora--something more
important to me than these things you speak of. Did you not read
that part?"
Thora looked meekly down at the white planks of the deck, her
cheeks growing rosy and her breath coming quick. Then turning her
eyes aft towards the steering wheel, she said, crossing the deck:
"Captain Ericson, do you not think you should be attending to the
piloting of this ship?"
"No," I said, following her across to the lee side, where the great
mizzen sail shielded us from the view of others on board. "No; my
mate, Willie Hercus, is looking after that. I am off duty today. I
am here not as pilot; I have come out to welcome you home."
Then, after a long silence, during which we both looked overboard
upon the dancing waves, where the porpoises rolled in play, and the
gulls dipped lightly on balanced wings, I said:
"Thora, you did not answer all my letter when you wrote. You were
not offended, were you, by what I said?"
"I know what you mean, Halcro," she said, resting her hand upon the
rail and turning her eyes full upon me, "I was not offended, or I
should not now be here.
Pages:
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350