Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/136

120 When he saw Aurelia fall on the lifeless form of William Gell with all the terms of endearment that love could invent, the light faded from his eyes and the glow from his cheek, and he turned almost as pale as his lifeless rival. With a sailor's impulsive passion he had himself fallen in love with Aurelia at first sight, and having brought her safely home to me might well suppose he had some right to claim his reward. Forgetting all about Gell, or thinking that after all so old an engagement need not be binding, he had made up his mind to do his best to win the noble girl to whom such strong cords bound him—the cord of similarity and strength of character, the cord of youth grace and beauty, the cord of a great service done and rescue made. And she—what wonder if she had warmly welcomed the first human face on which for four years she had set eyes? None the less so, because that face was a noble and beautiful one belonging to an individual of the opposite sex. And in the radiant joy and rapture of meeting the first member of the human world with whom she had exchanged speech for years, she little guessed that each glance, each word, kindled a fire of passionate love that all the waters of the ocean