Page:In the Roar of the Sea.djvu/243

Rh who dipped the juice of cursed hebenon into his ears, and it curdled all his blood. It is the same with the sort of language that is found in your house when your seamen are there. I cannot endure it, it curdles my heart—choose a girl who is indifferent."

"You shall not be subjected to it," said Coppinger, "and as to the girl you have sketched—I care not for her—such as you describe are to be found thick as whortleberries on a moor. Do you not know that man seeks in marriage not his counterpart but his contrast? It is because you are in all things different from me that I love you."

"Then will naught that I have said make you desist?"

"Naught."

"I have told you that I take you only so as to be able to make a home for Jamie."

"Yes."

"And that I do not love you and hardly think I can ever."

"Yes."

"And still you will have me?"

"Yes."

"And that by taking me you wreck my life—spoil my happiness."

He raised his head, then dropped it again and said, "Yes."

She remained silent, also looking on the ground. Presently she raised her head and said: "I gave you a chance, and you have cast it from you. I am sorry."

"A chance? "What chance?"

"The chance of taking a first step up the ladder in my esteem."

"I do not understand you."

"Therefore I am sorry."

"What is your meaning?"

"Captain Coppinger," said Judith, firmly, looking straight into his dark face and flickering eyes, "I am very, very sorry. When I told you that I accepted your offer only because I could not help myself, because I was a poor, feeble orphan, with a great responsibility laid on me, the charge of my unfortunate brother; that I only accepted you for his sake when I told you that I did not love you, that our characters, our feelings were so different that it would be misery to me to become your wife;