"Have you never thought--be honest, now--that you don't want to leave the island because it would mean our separation?"
"Yes, but--but it would be the same with anybody else if I cared for him," she exclaimed quickly.
"But there is no one else, is there?" She looked at him helplessly. "Answer!"
"Oh, Hugh, I--it would not be right for me to encourage you by answering that. Please let us go back to the village," she pleaded.
"Well, I know there is no one else. Tell me that you don't want to leave me because we should drift apart in the big world," he persisted.
"I had thought of that," she said so low that he could barely hear.
"You have prayed that Grace may be alive. What would it mean to you if she should be alive and we should be reunited?"
"I--I don't know," she muttered blankly.
"Would you be willing and happy to give me up to her?"
"I never thought of that," she said. Then a terror leaped to her eyes and her breast heaved as with pain. "Oh, Hugh, what would that mean to me? I could not give you up--I could not!" she cried, clasping his hand feverishly in both of hers.