"
At any other moment such a request must have had a sinister sound.
Coming then, it seemed to be a direct answer to Dick's excited appeal
to the unseen power that governs men's lives. He turned and looked into
her eyes. She was so near to him that he could see the wondrous light
shining in their limpid depths. He felt the fragrance of her presence,
the glow of her tender beauty, and she did not shrink from him when he
placed a protecting hand on her shoulder.
"You need no promise from me, Miss Fenshawe," he said, with a labored
utterance that was wholly unaccountable to him. "Twice already have I
refused to leave you, though I have been summoned to England to resume
an inheritance wrongfully withheld. We are stubborn, we Richards, and
we are loyal, too. It was you, I now believe, who snatched me from
misery, almost from despair. Have no fear, therefore, that I shall
desert you."
"You have taken a load from my heart," she answered softly. "You are
the only man on board In whom I have any real confidence.
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