dearest," she said, "at home, at Brockhurst, with me."

"Ah yes!" he said, "of course, I remember, I'm dying." He waited a
little space, and then, turning his head on the pillow so as to have a
better view of her, spoke again:--"I was floating right out--the
under-tow had got me--it was sucking me down into the deep sea of mist
and dreams. I was so nearly gone--and you brought me back."

"But I wanted you so--I wanted you so," Katherine cried, smitten with
sudden contrition. "I could not help it. Do you mind?"

"You silly sweet, could I ever mind coming back to you?" he asked
wistfully. "Don't you suppose I would much rather stay here at
Brockhurst, at home, with you--than sink away into the unknown?"

"Ah! my dear," she said, swaying herself to and fro in the misery of
tearless grief.

"And yet I have no call to complain," he went on. "I have had thirty
years of life and health. It is not a small thing to have seen the sun,
and to have rejoiced in one's youth. And I have had you"--his face
hardened and his breath came short--"you, most enchanting of women."

"My dear, my dear!" Katherine cried, again bowing her head.

"God has been so good to me here that--I hope it is not presumptuous--I
can't be much afraid of what is to follow. The best argument for what
will be, is what has been. Don't you think so?"

"But you go and I stay," she said. "If I could only go too, go with
you."

Richard Calmady raised himself in the bed, looked hard at her, spoke as
a man in the fulness of his strength.

"Do you mean that? Would you come with me if you could--come through
the deep sea of mist and dreams, to whatever lies beyond?"

For all answer Katherine bent lower, her face suddenly radiant,
notwithstanding its pallor. Sorrow was still so new a companion to her
that she would dare the most desperate adventures to rid herself of its
hateful presence. Her reason and moral sense were in abeyance, only her
poor heart spoke. She laid hold of her husband's hands and clasped them
about her throat.

"Let us go together, take me," she prayed. "I love you, I will not be
left. Closer, Dick, closer."

"Thank God! I am strong enough even yet," he said fiercely, while his
jaw set, and his grasp tightened somewhat dangerously upon her throat.
Katherine looked into his eyes and laughed. The blood was tingling
through her veins.

"Ah! dear love," she panted, "if you knew how delicious it is to be a
little hurt!"

But her ecstasy wa