"Why?" she demanded.
"It would give me great pleasure, without doubt. But in a week you will have too many other cares and duties to care for such a burden."
"That shows that you do not know me at all. Vous en avez usé mal avec moi!"
Though Mr. Raleigh still looked at her, he did not reply. She rose and walked away a few steps, coming back.
"You are always in the right, and I consequently in the wrong," she said. "How often to-night have I asked pardon? I will not put up with it!"
"We shall part in a few hours," he replied; "when you lose your temper, I lose my time."
"In a few hours? Then is the danger which you mentioned past?"
"I scarcely think so."
"Now I am not going to be diverted again. What is this dreadful danger?"
"Let me tell you, in the first place, that we shall probably make the port before our situation becomes apparently worse,--that we do not take to the boats, because we are twice too many to fill them, owing to the Belle Voyageuse, and because it might excite mutiny, and for several other becauses,--that every one is on deck, Capua consoling Ursule, the captain having told to each, personally, the possibility of escape"----