"Quite sure. Why not? Who could be better, more thoughtful, braver than you, and for the sake of a woman who, by mistake, owes her life to you? When you have done so much for me, why should I not say that you are the man I like best of all I know? It is strange, perhaps, that it should make any particular difference, but it seems to me no other man could inspire the feeling of resignation and contentment that you do. Really, it isn't so hard to live in the wilderness, is it?"
"Have you never known any one else with whom you could have been contented here?" he asked persistently.
"Oh, I don't know what other men would be like if they were in your place," she said. She appeared deeply thoughtful for some time, as if trying to imagine others of her acquaintance in Hugh's place. "I am sure I cannot imagine any one being just like you," she went on, conclusively.
"No one you may have loved?"
"I have never loved anybody," she cried.
"Do you know what love means?"
"I haven't the faintest conception," she laughed, mockingly.
"I believe you said that to me some time ago," he said.
"I wish I could love," she said lightly. "But I suppose the chance is forever lost if I am doomed to stay on this island all my life."
His smile was understood by the night.