'Oh! if you please, Mr Owen, do not do this. If are in earnest, sir, and I hope you are not, you must forget that you ever said this to me.'
'I do not mean to forget it, Gladys, or to let you forget it. Will you say the word? only give me hope and all will be right. Will you marry me, and be the daughter of your adopted mother?'
'I can never marry any one, sir; I have nothing to live for in this world, but to try to do my duty to you and yours, and to think of those I have lost.'
'Gladys, your cold manner maddens me. Say you hate me, and would rather marry some one else; say anything that has some heart in it. We sailors are made of warmer stuff than such icebergs as you.'
'I cannot say that, sir, because I do not hate you; and I never mean to marry, and I would sooner die than cause trouble in your family.'
'Then you won't have me, Gladys? and you mean to send me back to sea again, and to make me return to my wild ways, and to make my mother miserable?'
'Och hone! what will I do? Why do you say such things to me, Mr Owen, who have never done you any harm? I cannot marry—I cannot do what would be wicked and ungrateful—I will go away again back to old Ireland, and not cause trouble to those who have been so good to me.'
'No, you will not do anything of the kind, unless you wish me to go after you. I shall tell my father that I will be off to sea again, and then I need not trouble you any more.'
'I will not stay, Mr Owen, to make mischief; so if you will only please to stop at home with your parents I will go away.'
'I shall not please to do anything of the kind, for I only stayed so long on your account, and this is the reward I get.'