"Must you still remain absent from us?" asked the gray-haired woman, sighing.
"Unfortunately, yes. I expected to attain my purpose in a shorter time, but fate is against me; whenever I have thought I was approaching my goal, I was thrust back. Twice I have acquired some property, but ill-luck deprived me of it, and I was forced to begin anew."
"Ill luck?" asked the younger sister, "that means shipwreck and pirates, doesn't it?"
"Yes, shipwreck."
"And not pirates? We have feared them most! How often we have said that they might capture or kill you, leaving us to weep for you forever."
The young man smiled.
"Fear nothing from them, dear. They will not harm me. At the utmost, they will rob me of my property, and you would receive me kindly, were I to return penniless, would you not?"
"Ah, if only you would never go," whispered his beautiful fiancée.
"Nay, dearest, I cannot let you spend your life here; I wish to see you in splendor. I long to take you to some great, beautiful city, where you can have pleasant society, where the sun cannot scorch these fair features, nor toil roughen these little hands. You will see that it will yet come to pass."
"Add: with the help of God!" said the grandmother. "Every enterprise must begin with God's favor, then it will end with it. Do you still pray, William?"