I resisted it like an idiot. Do you remember how we used
to argue? I rebelled so against my love! I imagined that I had loved
once already and once for all. But on the night of the fire I knew that
my love for you was different from all that had gone before or would
ever come again. I gave in to it at last, and oh! the joy of giving in!
I had fought against the greatest blessing of my life, and I never knew
it till I had given up fighting. What did I care about the fire? I
was never happier--until now! You sang through my heart like the wind
through the rigging; my one fear was that I might go to the bottom
without telling you my love. When I asked to say a few last words to you
on the poop, it was to tell you my love before we parted, that you might
know I loved you whatever came. I didn't do so, because you seemed
so frightened, poor darling! I hadn't it in my heart to add to your
distress. So I left you without a word. But I fought the sea for days
together simply to tell you what I couldn't die without telling you.
When they picked me up, it was your name that brought back my senses
after days of delirium. When I heard that you were dead, I longed to
die myself. And when I found you lived after all, the horror of your
surroundings was nothing to be compared with the mere fact that you
lived; that you were unhappy and in danger was my only grief, but it was
nothing to the thought of your death; and that I had to wait twenty-four
hours without coming to you drove me nearer to madness than ever I was
on the hen-coop. That's how I love you, Eva," I concluded; "that's how I
love and will love you, for ever and ever, no matter what happens."

Those sweet gray eyes of hers had been fixed very steadily upon me all
through this outburst; as I finished they filled with tears, and my poor
love sat wringing her slender fingers, and upbraiding herself as though
she were the most heartless coquette in the country.

"How wicked I am!" she moaned. "How ungrateful I must be! You offer me
the unselfish love of a strong, brave man. I cannot take it. I have no
love to give you in return."

"But some day you may," I urged, quite happily in my ignorance. "It
will come. Oh, surely it will come, after all that we have gone through
together!"

She looked at me very steadily and kindly through her tears.

"It has come, in a way," said she; "but it is not your way, Mr. Cole. I
do love you for your bravery and your--love--but that will no