“Year after year passed by. Then came the account of the capture and destruction of his ship and loss of many of her officers, though no information as to his fate could be obtained. All I knew, to my grief, was that he did not return. Still I have a hope amounting almost to confidence that he is alive. The thought that I might possibly meet with him made me less unwilling than I should otherwise have been to obey Mrs Podgers’ commands to accompany her on the voyage she was about to make. Her sole motive, I suspect, in wishing me to go, was to save the expense of my continuing at school. Still I wonder sometimes how I could have ventured on board, suspecting, as I had already done, the hypocritical character of the woman who had pretended to be so devoted to my mother and me.”
“You have, at all events, proved an inestimable blessing to me,” said the young officer. “Even when I first saw you, I could not believe that you were really the daughter of such people as the captain and his wife.”
I do not know that I had before thought much about the matter, but when I heard now, for the first time, that Miss Kitty was not related to the captain and his wife, I felt a sort of relief, and could not help exclaiming, “Oh, I am so glad!” She smiled as she looked at me, but she made no reply either to mine or Mr Falconer’s remark. She gave us both, I have no doubt, credit for sincerity.
Although our visits to the wounded mate occupied a good deal of our time—I say our visits, for I always accompanied Miss Kitty—we did not neglect the other wounded men.
We went, indeed, to see poor Jonas Webb several times a day. Sorely wounded as he was, he yet could listen to what Miss Kitty said to him, though he was too weak and suffering to utter more than a few words in reply. She one day, finding him worse, asked him solemnly if he was prepared to meet his God.
“What! do you think I am dying, young lady?” he groaned out, in a trembling voice.
“The doctor says that he has never known any one wounded as badly as you are to recover,” she said, in a gentle, but firm voice.
“Oh, but I cannot die!” he murmured. “I have made well-nigh five hundred pounds, and expected to double it in this cruise, and I cannot leave all that wealth. I want to go home, to live at my ease and enjoy it.”
“You cannot take your wealth with you,” she answered.
Without saving more, she read from the Bible the account of the rich man and Lazarus. She then went on to the visit of the wealthy young lawyer to Jesus, and paused at the reply of the Lord; she repeated the words, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”