“I shall not go down again. I start so very soon. It would only be painful to them; and I shall be very busy making preparations till the ship sails.”
She stood there, clinging to the cold stone, and he went on in the same hurried way.
“It is a grand work, and Heaven knows I wish I were more capable. There will be so much to do. I shall have to start a hospital, even in the humblest way at first, and let it grow by degrees. There will be a great deal of prejudice, too, to overcome, but it will be satisfactory to master all these difficulties one by one. And I will!” he cried with energy. “Yes: Sir Denton is right,” he added enthusiastically; “it will be a grand work, and I long to get there and begin.”
“And you will go without fear,” she said, as if she were speaking a solemn truth.
“I hope so,” he said humbly; “but man is very weak. There, I am going, weak or strong, and I think you know me enough to believe that I shall do my best.”
“Yes, I know that,” she said gravely, and her voice was very low and sweet.
“Thank you. It encourages me,” he said cheerfully. “You will give me your prayers for my success, I know.”
“Indeed, yes,” she said, as she looked up at him, and he saw her eyes were wet with tears.
“Don’t—don’t do that,” he said huskily. “It is nothing to grieve for. I only say, forgive me for all the mistaken past, and—”
His emotion choked him for the moment, but he struggled bravely to go on: