"Be brave!" he kept repeating, to convince her. "You'll never learn unless you are courageous. I'll stay near you."
Thus he enveloped her with his homicidal thought; and he had a long inner thrill each time, during the incidents of the bath, that he became convinced of the extreme facility with which he could carry his thoughts into effect. But the necessary energy failed him, and he confined himself to proposing the swim to the rock and leaving the rest to chance. In his present, weak condition, he himself would be in peril if Hippolyte, seized by fright, took violent hold of him. But such a probability did not dissuade him from making the attempt; on the contrary, it made him more determined to do so.
"Be brave! Cannot you see that the rock is so near that we can almost touch it with our hands? Swim slowly, by my side. You can rest when you're there. We'll sit down; we'll gather some coral. Come, be brave!"
He dissimulated his own anxiety with difficulty. She resisted, undecided, wavering between fear and caprice.
"Suppose my strength gives out?"
"I'll be there to help you."
"And if your strength isn't sufficient?"
"It will be. You see how close the rock is."
Smiling, she touched her lips with her wet fingers.
"The water is so salt!" she said, pouting.