he spoke in the soothing tone one
adopts towards an injured child.

'I did not fall overboard.'

'Then, what happened?'

'I threw myself into the sea!'

'You--you wished to drown?'

'Yes, I wanted to die--to be rid of my wretched, empty life.'

Done was thrilled. He gazed earnestly upon the frail young figure; he had
a dawning sense of the possibilities of life and emotion in others. He,
too, had often thought of self-slaughter in an abstract way as the final
defiance; but here was a mere girl for whom life held so little that she
craved for and dared death. A remembrance of his own sister came back to
him, softening his heart to pity. He touched Lucy's arm gently.

'And when you were thanking me just now,' he said, 'you--'

'I lied? No, no, no!' she cried, with a revulsion of feeling; 'I meant
it! I am grateful--indeed I am grateful! I longed to die; but the thought
of washing about in these terrible waters makes me ill with fear. When
the waves took hold of me and swept me under I wished to live--I had a
wild yearning for life. Many times since last night I have felt the water
sucking me down and the mighty waves piling above me, and have felt again
the utter helplessness and terror.' Shuddering, she covered her face with
her hands, but continued speaking after a moment's pause. 'It was
horrible to die; but I am wretched--wretched! and I shall never be brave
enough to venture again--never!'

She threw the hood back from her abundant hair and stood a little apart,
her hands pressed upon her eyes, struggling with her tears, already
wondering at the sudden, overwhelming emotion that had swept her into
this betrayal. He mused in a troubled way, perplexed by her
contradictions avowal, feeling that, after all, he might have done this
girl a great wrong.

'Has your life been so unhappy, then?' he asked.

'It has been too happy,' she replied in a constrained voice.

'Too happy?'

'If I had learned to know sorrow sooner I could have borne it better,
perhaps; but until a year ago my life was all happiness. Before that I
had those who loved me, and neither fears nor cares. My father died, and
mother followed him within seven months. I was their only child; I found
myself alone, beset with anxieties and terrors, utterly desolate. I am
going to be Mrs. Macdougal's companion at her husband's sheep-run, deep
in the Australian Bush, and to teach their children. Since coming aboard
I have been too much alone; I have h