She uttered a little sound like one who stands in mountain mists and through a rent in the grey curtain sees a light shining in the valley.
"Would it do that for you? Oh, if it's going to help you, I'm afraid no longer." She reached out and held his face between the finger-tips of her two hands. "I promise not to be afraid. Already"—she looked about her—"I am not afraid. How wonderful you are! And what a wise physician! Physician, heal thyself. You'll go away?"
"Yes, I can go now."
"Where?"
"For a voyage. The Mediterranean. Not a liner—on some slow-going boat."
"Not a leaky one," she begged.
"Ah, I'd come back if she had no bottom to her. Nothing is going to hurt me or keep me from you!"
She did not protest against his boasting, but smiled because she knew he meant to test her.
"You'll be away a long time," she said.
"And you'll marry me when I come back?"