'Oh, my God! I want to go and drown myself.'
Evan lingered behind her till he saw her body sway, and in a fit of trembling she half fell on his outstretched arm. He led her to the stone, not knowing what on earth to do with her. There was no sign of a house near; they were quite solitary; to all his questions she gave an unintelligible moan. He had not the heart to leave her, so, taking a sharp seat on a heap of flints, thus possibly furnishing future occupation for one of his craftsmen, he waited, and amused himself by marking out diagrams with his stick in the thick dust.
His thoughts were far away, when he heard, faintly uttered:
'Why do you stop here?'
'To help you.'
'Please don't. Let me be. I can't be helped.'
'My good creature,' said Evan, 'it 's quite impossible that I should leave you in this state. Tell me where you were going when your illness seized you?'
'I was going,' she commenced vacantly, 'to the sea—the water,' she added, with a shivering lip.
The foolish youth asked her if she could be cold on such a night.
'No, I'm not cold,' she replied, drawing closer over her lap the ends of a shawl which would in that period have been thought rather gaudy for her station.