"I know, dear, and between us surely nothing need be said. I am as
thankful that I have been the means of saving you, as you can be
that I was almost miraculously enabled to follow your track so
successfully."
"Breakfast is ready, sir," the steward announced from the
companion.
"Coming, steward.
"I have told them, Bertha, to lay for three. I thought that it
would be pleasanter for you to have Anna with you at meals, as I
suppose she has taken them with you since you were carried off."
"Thank you," she said, gratefully. "It won't be quite so nice for
you, I know, but perhaps it will be better."
"Well, Anna, you are looking very well," Frank said as he sat down.
"You must officiate with the coffee, Bertha. I will see after the
eatables."
"Yes, Anna does look well," Bertha said. "She has borne up
capitally, ever since the first two days. We have had all our meals
together in our cabin."
"Miss Greendale has been a great deal braver than I have, sir,"
Anna said, quietly. "She has been wonderfully brave, and though she
is very good to say that I have borne up well, I know very well
that I have not been as brave as I ought; and I could not help
breaking down and crying sometimes, for I did think that we should
never get home again."
"Except carrying you away, Carthew did not behave altogether so
badly, Bertha?"
"No. The first day that we got on board he told me that I was to
stay there until I consented to marry him. I told him that in that
case I should become a permanent resident on board, but that sooner
or later I should be rescued. He only said then, that he hoped that
I should change my mind in time. He admitted that his conduct had
been inexcusable, but that his love for me had driven him to it,
and that he had only won me as many a knight had won a bride before
now.
"At first I made sure that, when we put into a port, I should be
able somehow to make my condition known; but I realised for the
first time what it was going to be, when I saw us stand off the
Lizard and lay her head for the south. Up to that time I had
scarcely exchanged a word with him. I had said at once that unless
I had my meals in my own cabin with Anna, I would eat nothing at
all, and he said, quite courteously, I must confess, that I should
in all respects do as I pleased, consistent with safety.
"From that time he said 'Good morning,' gravely when I came up on
deck with Anna, and made a remark about the weather. I made no
reply, and did not speak until he came to me in the morning, and
said quietly, 'That is the Lizard astern of us, Miss Greendale. We
are bound for the West Indies, the finest cruising ground in the
world, full of quiet little bays where we can anchor for weeks.'
"'It is monstrous,' I said desperately, for I own that for the
first time I was really frightened. 'Some day you will be punished
for this.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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