"Neither can I."
"Why not?"
"How can a man eat when there are hungry women aboard? It would choke me."
Instead of scolding him, she again buried her face in her pillow, and burst into tears.
He was a little perplexed, but said, gently, "Come, my dear little sister, I hope you are not worrying about me. I assure you there is no cause. I never felt better, and the worst that can happen is a famine in England when I reach. It grieves me to the heart to see you so pale and weak. The captain says I have a bad conscience, but it's only anxiety for you that makes me so restless."
"Do you stay upon deck all night this bitter weather?"
"Well, I want to be ready if anything should happen."
"O Walter, Walter! how I have wronged you!"
"No, beg your pardon, you have righted me. What was I when I first knew you, Annie Walton? There is some chance of my being a man now. But come, let me cheer you up. I have good news for you. If I had lost every dollar on that ship I should still be rich, for your little Bible (I shall always call it yours) remained safe in my overcoat pocket, and you brought it aboard. Now let me read you something that will comfort you. I find a place where it is written, 'Begin here.' Can you account for that?"
And he read that chapter, so old but inexhaustible, beginning, "Let not your heart be troubled."