The sister had wasted away very
slowly, and wild and terrible fantasies had come over her toward
the end, but he had never been impatient with her, or at a loss;
had always been gentle, watchful, and self-possessed. The sister
had known him, as she had known him, to be the best of men, the
kindest of men, and yet a man of such admirable strength of
character, as to be a very tower for the support of their weak
natures while their poor lives endured.
'I shall leave him, Mr. Sampson, very soon,' said the young lady;
'I know my life is drawing to an end; and when I am gone, I hope he
will marry and be happy. I am sure he has lived single so long,
only for my sake, and for my poor, poor sister's.'
The little hand-carriage had made another great loop on the damp
sand, and was coming back again, gradually spinning out a slim
figure of eight, half a mile long.
'Young lady,' said I, looking around, laying my hand upon her arm,
and speaking in a low voice, 'time presses. You hear the gentle
murmur of that sea?'
She looked at me with the utmost wonder and alarm, saying, 'Yes!'
'And you know what a voice is in it when the storm comes?'
'Yes!'
'You see how quiet and peaceful it lies before us, and you know
what an awful sight of power without pity it might be, this very
night!'
'Yes!'
'But if you had never heard or seen it, or heard of it in its
cruelty, could you believe that it beats every inanimate thing in
its way to pieces, without mercy, and destroys life without
remorse?'
'You terrify me, sir, by these questions!'
'To save you, young lady, to save you! For God's sake, collect
your strength and collect your firmness! If you were here alone,
and hemmed in by the rising tide on the flow to fifty feet above
your head, you could not be in greater danger than the danger you
are now to be saved from.
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