He stood for a moment silent, livid, and breathing hard, like an animal spent in a long chase; but in his eyes burned the intense fire of a love victorious over horror and despair. Then he suddenly seized her hand and nearly crushed it in his convulsive grip, as he whispered hoarsely, in a voice vibrating with the strong passion of his soul—stronger than death and the grave: “Woman! spirit! we are on the immediate brink of eternity! I love you more than life in this world or the next! I love you more than all created things in earth or heaven! Tell me, in this last mortal hour! tell me before we part—Britomarte—that you love me!” She looked him in the face and met his eye; she raised her hand and pointed upward, as she answered in a low and thrilling voice: “We shall meet there! I will tell you then!” Her answer seemed to satisfy him; a ray of joy inspired and exalted his countenance; once more he crushed her hand in all too strong a grasp, and then he stooped and said. “Come! your companions are all in the boats. Let me take you to them.” “And you?” “They are leaving me in the ship! no matter! Come!” “Why do they leave you?” “There is no room in the boats! Come! come! there is not an instant to be lost!” “No! I will not enter the lifeboat! I will remain with the wreck! I am not afraid of death at all,” she answered, with that iron resolution that he seldom ever saw in any other human being. “But it is your duty to try and save your life! Heaven and earth! there is no time to argue this point! The ship is doomed! the boats are leaving her! Come!” he rapidly and eagerly exclaimed. “My mind is made up! I will share the fate of—the ship!” she answered, calmly. “Then I will save you whether you will or not!” he cried, hastily laying hands on her. “Stop! Don’t dare to use force with me, Mr. Rosenthal!” she exclaimed, in a tone that made his hands fall from her person as if they had been struck off. “But Heaven of Heavens! there is no time—not an instant of time for persuasion! The ship is sinking, I tell you!” he cried, breathing hard. “Then I will sink with—the ship,” she persisted. “But why? oh, why?” he demanded, quickly, scarcely able all the while to keep his hands off her. “Why? why?” he pleaded. Perhaps he hoped that in this last awful hour she would give him a supreme proof of love, and say that she was resolved to stay to share his fate. And perhaps “to share his fate” was her strongest motive for wishing to remain on the wreck; but if so, she gave a weaker one; she said: “Because I would rather at once sink with the ship, and meet a quick and easy death, than take the chance of life amid the horrors of the lifeboats. I will stay here, and wait my fate.”