"Look at that darkness," she said—"that infinite void under which an ocean wallows. It is like hell, I think. Do you understand how I fear the ocean?"
"Do you fear it, child?"
"Aye," she said, musing; "it took father and mother and brother. You knew that?"
"Lady Coleville says there is always hope that they may be alive—cast on that far continent——"
"So the attorneys say—because there is a legal limit—and I am the Honorable Elsin Grey. Ah, Carus, I know that the sea has them fast. No port shall that tall ship enter save the last of all—the Port of Missing Ships. Heigho! Sir Frederick is kind—in his own fashion.... I would I had a mother.... There is a loneliness that I feel ... at times...."
A vague gesture, and she lifted her head, with a tremor of her shoulders, as though shaking off care as a young girl drops a scarf of lace to her waist.
Presently she turned quietly to me:
"I have told Lady Coleville," she said.
"Told her what, child?"
"Of my promise to Captain Butler. I have not yet told everything—even to you."