"You are very--very kind," said she, in a faltering voice. "You will lay me under very great obligations. Yes, Sir, I accept your kind offer. I shall be only too happy to put myself under your protection. I will go with you, and may Heaven bless you!"
She held out her hand toward him. Obed Chute took that little hand in his, but restrained his great strength, and only pressed it lightly.
Meanwhile Windham had come in to congratulate the beautiful girl, whose face had been haunting him ever since that time when the sun lighted it up, as it lay amidst its glory of ebon hair upon his breast. He heard these last words, and stood apart, modestly awaiting some chance to speak.
Zillah raised her face.
Their eyes met in a long earnest gaze.
Zillah was the first to speak. "You saved me from a fearful fate," she said, in low and tremulous tones. "I heard all about it."
Windham said nothing, but bowed in silence.
Zillah rose from her chair, and advanced toward him, her face expressing strong emotion. Now he saw, for the first time, her wondrous eyes, in all their magnificence of beauty, with their deep unfathomable meaning, and their burning intensity of gaze. On the schooner, while her head lay on his breast, those eyes were closed in senselessness--now they were fixed on his.
"Will you let me thank you, Sir," she said, in a voice which thrilled through him in musical vibrations, "for my _life_, which you snatched from a death of horror? To thank you, is but a cold act. Believe me, you have my everlasting gratitude."
She held out her hand to Windham. He took it in both of his, and reverentially raised it to his lips. A heavy sigh burst from him, and he let it fall.