"You know I do. Have you not known it long, long ago?"
"I hoped, and yet I feared——"
"You should not fear."
"Then, Bertha, dear, will you——" he hesitated for a few moments. Her hand trembled, her face was turned away. "Will you become my wife as soon as we land?"
"I am your prisoner, sir, and prisoners are not usually consulted about their future," she answered mischievously.
"But I heard a lady say that if, as a prisoner, she was taken to the altar, she would kill herself."
"But her captor was English."
"Then any American who might capture you——"
"You have taken me prisoner, and if you cannot keep me, why—why, the bravest man shall have me. So there!"