"  Oh,  Mr.  Dodd ! "  she  cried,  "  what  am  I  doing  ?  "

"  You  have  been  getting  a  nice  sleep,  thank  Heaven."

"  Yes,  and  making  use  of  you,  even  in  my  sleep ;  but
we  all  impose  on  your  goodness."

"  Why  did  you  awake  ?  you  were  happy.  You  felt  no
care ;  and  I  was  happy  seeing  you  so."

Lucy's  eyes  filled.  "Kind,  true  friend,"  she  mur-
mured, "  how  can  I  ever  thank  you  as  I  ought  ?  I  little
deserved  that  you  should  watch  over  my  safety  as  you
have  done,  and,  alas !  risk  your  own.    Any  other  but


LOVE  MB  LITTLE,  LOVE  ME  LONG.  387

you  would  have  borne  me  malice,  and  let  me  perish,  and
said,  '  It  serves  her  right.' "

"  Malice !  Miss  Lucy.    What  for,  in  heaven's  name  ?  "

"For  —  for  the  affront  I  put  upon  you  :  for  the  — the
honor  I  declined."

"  Hate  cannot  lie  alongside  love  in  a  true  heart."

"  I  see  it  cannot  in  a  noble  one.  And  then  you  are  so
generous.  You  have  never  once  recurred  to  that  unfor-
tunate topic ;  yet  you  have  gained  a  right  to  request
me  —  to  reconsider  —  Mr.  Dodd,  you  have  saved  my
life ! "

"  What,  do  you  praise  me  because  I  don't  take  a  mean
advantage  ?    That  would  not  be  behaving  like  a  man."

"I  don't  know  that.  You  overrate  your  sex, — and
mine.  We  don't  deserve  such  generosity.  The  proof  is,
we  reward  those  who  are  not  so  —  delicate."

"I  don't  trouble  my  head  about  your  sex.  They  are
nothing  to  me,  and  never  will  be.  If  you  think  I  have
done  my  duty  like  a  man,  and  as  much  like  a  gentleman
as  my  homely  education  permits,  that  is  enough  for  me,
and  I  shall  sail  for  China  as  happy  as  anything  on  earth
can  make  me  now."

Lucy  answered  this  by  crying  gently,  silently,  ten-
derly.
