"I hate it!… But, there!"—weariness edging in. "I am sorry. I shouldn't talk like that. I'm a poor nurse."
"You are the most wonderful human being I ever saw!" And he meant it.
She trembled; but she did not know why. "You mustn't talk any more; the excitement isn't good for you."
Drama. To get behind that impenetrable curtain, to learn why she hated her island. Never had he been so intrigued. Why, there was drama in the very dress she wore! There was drama in the unusual beauty of her, hidden away all these years on a forgotten isle!
"You've been lonely, too."
"You mustn't talk."
He ignored the command. "To be lonely! What is physical torture, if someone who loves you is nigh? But to be alone … as I am!… yes, and as you are! Oh, you haven't told me, but I can see with half an eye. With nobody who cares … the both of us!"
He was real in this moment. She was given a glimpse of his soul. She wanted to take him in her arms and hush him, but she sat perfectly still. Then came the shock of the knowledge that soon he would be going upon his way, that there would be no one to depend upon her; and all the old loneliness came smothering down upon her again. She could not analyse what was stirring in her: the thought of losing the doll, the dog, and the cat. There was the world besides, looming darker and larger.
"What would you like most in this world?" he asked. Once more he was the searcher.
"Red apples and snow!" she sent back at him, her face suddenly transfixed by some inner glory.