The sun was high in the sky, when she gently disengaged herself to give him the stimulants and nourishment he required. The utter helplessness of the wreck of him that lay cast ashore there, now alarmed her, but he himself appeared a little more hopeful.
‘Ah, my beloved Lizzie!’ he said, faintly. ‘How shall I ever pay all I owe you, if I recover!’
‘Don’t be ashamed of me,’ she replied, ‘and you will have more than paid all.’
‘It would require a life, Lizzie, to pay all; more than a life.’
‘Live for that, then; live for me, Eugene; live to see how hard I will try to improve myself, and never to discredit you.’
‘My darling girl,’ he replied, rallying more of his old manner than he had ever yet got together. ‘On the contrary, I have been thinking whether it is not the best thing I can do, to die.’
‘The best thing you can do, to leave me with a broken heart?’
‘I don’t mean that, my dear girl. I was not thinking of that. What I was thinking of was this. Out of your compassion for me, in this maimed and broken state, you make so much of me—you think so well of me—you love me so dearly.’
‘Heaven knows I love you dearly!’
‘And Heaven knows I prize it! Well. If I live, you’ll find me out.’