"Doctor, did you ever love?" asked Henry, abruptly, as he gazed rather wildly at his host.
This was a severe question to a man whose matrimonial experience was of such a disagreeable nature. But he remembered the day before marriage,—the sunny dreams which had beguiled many a weary hour,—and he sympathized with the unhappy man.
"I have," replied the doctor, solemnly, so solemnly that it chilled the ardent blood of the listener. "I have loved, and can understand your present state of feeling."
"Then you know, if I do not regain her whom I have lost, I had better die now than endure the misery before me."
The doctor was not quite so sure of this, but he did not express the thought.
"You will regain her," said he.
"Alas! I fear not. The boat was almost a total wreck. I saw scores of dead and dying as I clung to my frail support."
"Fear not. Believe me, captain, I am a prophet; she shall be restored to your arms again."
"I thank you for the assurance; but I fear you are not an infallible prophet."
"In this instance, I am."