‘Two, George and Frederick. George is in the Indian Army, and has been out in Bengal for the last five years; and Fred is in business in London. He goes down to see mother every now and then; but they are only flying visits, and she must feel very lonely at times.’
‘Yes, very! How often do you see her?’
‘Every few months, as a rule; but my time in England is necessarily short. If I had a wife—’ said Captain Norris, and there stopped.
‘Well,’ remarked Lizzie encouragingly, ‘what then?’
‘I was going to say that (with her permission, of course) I shouldn’t be entirely selfish: I should leave her behind me some voyages, that she might keep my mother company. It wouldn’t be for long, perhaps, for I hope to get work on shore some day—I shouldn’t like to spend all my life roving about like this, without any settled home.’
‘But it must be glorious to sail about all over the world, and see so many new countries!’ cried Lizzie, with kindling eyes.
‘It is, whilst a man is young and independent, and has no ties to pull at his heart-strings. You would enjoy it, Lizzie, I am sure. Your free and energetic spirit would be quite in accord with the unfettered elements, and you would glory in seeing them circumvented (for mastered they can never be) by the ingenuity or prevision of men.’
‘Yes, I should like it, I am sure. It is the sort of life that would carry one out of oneself, and make one almost forget how much falsehood and wickedness and ingratitude hold their place amongst men. To be out on the open sea from morning to night, and to know for certain that no one who has injured or disappointed you can follow you there, and that you are alone with God and your own thoughts—it must be a kind of little heaven in itself, if—if—’
‘If what, Lizzie?’ demanded Hugh Norris eagerly.
‘If one went with the person one loved,’ she replied, with a slight increase of colour.