He hesitated as he replied:
"Don't you know?"
"O, William, what is it? You make my heart beat."
"Why we have been wrecked in the Mediterranean. I am sorry to tell you so abruptly; I thought you knew."
He was safe before me; but we feel even the past perils of those we love. I felt myself turning faint and pale. William seemed much moved; he assured me that the danger had not been so very great, though in the hour of peril he had indeed thought of me as of one he should see no more.
"Oh, William!" I said, looking up, and allowing him again to take my hands in his, "will you not leave that perilous life, and that dangerous sea?"
"I cannot, Daisy; why I am only here for two days; I shall not see much of you before I am off again."
"For long?"
"A year," he replied, sighing.
"How long have you been back?"