“It was after I knew your sister, and after we loved each other, that I found out your father was very wealthy, and that she would one day be so. This discovery made me very unhappy. Though I myself am connected with the peerage, my family are poor at present. I knew Marie would not believe I was trying to woo her for her wealth. Heavens! she would be rich had she not a single sou; but her father might object. And so I told her all.”
“And did it make any difference?”
“To Marie not the slightest. But to me it did. I was determined she should not bind herself to a roving sailor like myself. It was in grief and sorrow, ay, and in tears, that we parted. I had heard that one or two expeditions were bound for the Antarctic, and I determined to join. I have done so, and I feel it is for the best. If I die—well, all will be over. If, during the years of enforced absence in these seas, Marie forgets me—well, all will be over just the same, and I still can pray for her happiness should I never see her more.”
“But,” said Ingomar, “suppose she does not forget you?”
“Ah! then,” said Arne, with a faint smile, “I may still dare to hope. This hope, dear Hans, I have. It is this hope that makes me live again, and this hope that I will cherish whatever happens.”
Once more he clasped Hans’ hand, and, still clasping it, fell into a gentle sleep. Ingomar now spread a rug over his knees, and went to sleep in Captain Bell’s easy-chair.
For Ingomar himself had a dream to dream.
CHAPTER VI
“TO THE WEST, TO THE WEST”
At the council or consultation that took place some days after this in the ward-room of the Walrus, both Charlie and Walt were present, but, of course, were not supposed to speak.
It was resolved therein that, instead of plunging at once into the great ice-pack, and attempting to find out the South Pole by one bold rush, the two ships should first spend ten or eleven months in sailing completely round the world that lies all beneath or south of the latitudes of Kerguelen and Cape Horn or Tierra del Fuego, and other southern lands around the Antarctic Continent.