"
"Do not turn your horse yet." He allowed himself to be urgent now. "I
have something to say to you which must be said. I am going home; I do
not want to wait for the steamer; I want to bribe one of those sealing
vessels to start with me to-day. I have come to ask you if you will not
come with me to see my mother. You do not know what it is to have a
mother. Mothers are very good; mine is. You would like to be with her, I
know; you would have the calm of feeling taken care of, instead of
standing alone in the world."
He said all this without letting his tone betray that that
double-thoughted mind of his was telling him that this was doubtful,
that his mother might be slow to believe in Josephine, and that he was
not sure whether Josephine would be attracted by her.
Josephine looked at him with round-eyed surprise; then, apparently
conjecturing that the invitation was purely kind, purely stupid, she
thanked him, and declined it graciously.
"Is there no folly with which you would not easily credit me?" He smiled
faintly in his reproach. "Do you think I do not know what I am saying? I
have been awake all night thinking what I could do for you." For a
moment he looked at her helplessly, hoping that some hint of the truth
would come of itself; then, turning away his face, he said hoarsely: "Le
Maitre is on the Gaspe schooner. O'Shea has had the news.
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