ht fade from her own life...

Sitting huddled in her seat, Jackey's little form pillowed in her arm,
Katrine's thoughts reviewed her past life and marvelled at the
strangeness of it. Paced with the possibility of death, all the years
that were past counted for nothing as compared with the happening of a
few short days. Martin, Grizel, the friends and companions of her
youth--she repeated their names, and sought to visualise each
countenance in turn. In vain! the likenesses refused to appear; even
Martin's face was blurred, or was it that she had not enough patience,
enough interest, to spare for the effort? Bedford was the world; apart
from him she was incapable of a regret.

The boat drifted on. Now the sailors had turned her head and were
rowing slowly back towards the ship. The yellow blur still shone
through the fog. The men discussed together as to the amount of damage
that had been done, the possibility of keeping the hulk afloat. Nancy
Mannering turned and spoke into Katrine's ear:

"My dear, one word! ... You mayn't suspect it, but I've a heart--. In
a physical Sense, I mean, no sentiment; and it's a poor thing. I don't
expect to be drowned, but a little more of this excitement, and it may
play tricks. It's all one, I'm not whining, but if I _should_ pan out,
and you get through, will you just write to my boy? Tell him I asked
you, and that he is not to grieve. Bound to go somehow, some day, and,
why not now? I've no particular wish to live on here, but you can tell
him this--wherever I am, whatever comes next, there'll be no peace for
me unless _he_ keeps straight! That I _know_, and he'd better know it,
too." She was silent for some moments, during which Katrine heard the
quick intake of her breath, then: "And tell him," she added with
difficulty, "tell him I've always been an ostrich, hiding, not my head,
but my heart. Somehow I couldn't let it out, but," her voice deepened
to a full, rich note, "there's never been a moment of his life, since he
was born, when I wouldn't have been flayed--_slowly_! for his good!
Tell him his mother loved him more than her life."

"I'll tell him; I won't write. I'll travel the length of India, if need
be, to tell him myself," cried Katrine, deeply touched. To discover a
hidden weakness in her jaunty, self-sufficient companion was to feel
herself infused with new strength. She was needed, and the woman in her
rose to the? demand. She hitched Jackey on o