Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/137

Rh could never quench. Yet such was the fact. And when it was suddenly proved to him that his new-born love was utterly hopeless, that all the kindness and frank sisterly affection with which Aurelia had greeted her rescuer bore no proportion to the ardent love with which she regarded his rival, not all the triumph of victory nor the applause of shouting crowds could prevent him from wishing he had gone safely to the bottom of those fathomless waters in which he had sunk his vanquished foe.

The care and attention that had to be given to William prevented me from dwelling on the heartaches of Dana. For Gell though revived was utterly weak, and we had to form a rough litter iuin [sic] which we bore him to my house, where I need hardly say Aurelia at once established herself as nurse and attendant. So sweet and natural was her presence that it seemed as though she had only been absent for a brief visit; so readily did she fall into the strange ways of a new home that I began to comprehend the wonderful adaptiveness which had enabled her to live for years among the fearful surroundings of the continent. Gell's recovery was slow; the sever-