Her whole soul was wrapped up in one idea--escape! But how was she to achieve it, out of that accursed vessel, unless she cast herself headlong into the river? She certainly shrank from self-destruction, and hoped that something--'that vague something, the forlorn hope of the desperate'--might intervene to save and set her free. Sir Redmond's persistent love-making could draw no response from her. This enraged him; he ground his teeth, while longing to take her in his arms, and kiss her whether she would or not; yet he dared not attempt to molest her when he was sober and in daylight; something in the girl's purity and disgust of him repressed him. He dissembled, and said, submissively, 'With your love, Ellinor--in offering mine--I would be a very different man from what I have been.' 'Your love!' she muttered, in a low voice of scorn. 'Yes.' 'Dare you offer it again to me after all I know?' 'What a little tragedy spit-fire it is! Well, it is perhaps too much to ask you to love me, so I will only crave permission to love you.' 'Insult on insult! Oh, this is intolerable!' exclaimed Ellinor, covering her face with her hands. 'It is useless to remind a man like you of his marriage.' Sleath's eyes gleamed dangerously. He and Ellinor were alone in the saloon, as Dewsnap and the sailing-master were smoking on deck, and the companion-way was kept bolted to prevent any attempt at escape. 'What did I know of life, of the world, or of human nature when I met that artful woman with the absurd name, Fubsby, and took vows--if vows they were--for a life-time. Married! Well, even if I were so legally--which I don't quite admit--what then? In the society in which we move--' 'We?' 'Dewsnap and I--flirtation forms the great occupation--even accomplishment--of married life on the part of those who are bound by it. You have much to learn yet, my simple little Ellinor.' 'Do you call this conduct of yours flirtation--this illegal and punishable abduction of me--and insulting, loathly love-making?' 'Loathly--an unpleasant phrase to use. Instead of the wretched life you lead at Paddington, I can give you one well worth living,' said he, as if he addressed a girl at a bar or a buffet, and in ignorance of all that had passed since he had discovered their residence in St. Mary's Terrace; 'and in turn, Ellinor, you will learn that a faithful old lover is not to be despised.' 'I have already learned that,' said Ellinor, her tears beginning to fall hotly as she thought of Robert Wodrow. 'I am glad to hear you say so,' said Sleath, thinking of himself, 'and to find that after all you cannot forget a man who has once loved you--and loves you so fondly still, in spite of the coldness you manifest and the obliquy you heap upon him. How grand it is to forgive!' he continued, attempting to take her hand. 'The literary bear Samuel Johnson never seemed so wretched as a man and a moralist, than when he gloried in loving a _good hater_.'