"Well, then, if you can't at all," coolly observed Cornelius, "I must carry you."
"I am very heavy!" I objected, astonished at the suggestion.
He laughed, and attempted to lift me up, but I resisted.
"Oh! it will fatigue you so!" I said.
"No, nature has given me such extraordinary strength that I can bear without fatigue burdens—like you, for instance—beneath which other men would sink."
He raised me with an ease that justified his assertion. I clasped my arms around his neck, rested my head on his shoulder, and feeling how firm and secure was his hold, I yielded with a pleasurable sensation to a mode of conveyance which I found both novel and luxurious. I could not however help asking once, with lingering uneasiness, "If he did not feel tired?"
"No; strange to say, and heavy as you are, I do not: but why do you shiver? Are you cold?"
"No, thank you," I replied, but my teeth chattered as I spoke.
"I hope it is nothing worse than cold," uneasily observed Cornelius, stopping short; "undo the clasp of my cloak, and bring it around you."
I obeyed; he helped to wrap me up in the warm and ample folds, and we resumed our journey, a moment interrupted. He walked fast; we soon reached Ryde; but he would not let me come to light until we were safely housed. I heard a staid voice observing—