“I do believe, Captain, she be still alive!”
Volume Three—Chapter Fifteen.
Still Alive.
Impossible to depict the expression on Vivian Ryecroft’s face, as the words of the waterman fall upon his ear. It is more than surprise—more than astonishment—intensely interrogative, as though some secret hope once entertained, but long gone out of his heart, had suddenly returned to it.
“Still alive!” he exclaims, springing to his feet, and almost upsetting the table. “Alive!” he mechanically repeats. “What do you mean, Wingate? And who?”
“My poor girl, Captain. You know.”
“His girl, not mine! Mary Morgan, not Gwendoline Wynn!” reflects Ryecroft within himself, dropping back upon his chair as one stunned by a blow.
“I’m almost sure she be still livin’,” continues the waterman, in wonder at the emotion his words have called up, though little suspecting why.