Part 31 (1/2)
Brandon looked at her fixedly for a long ti She placed her cool hand on his forehead His eyes closed as though there were a netic power in her touch After a while, as she reain He took her hand and held it fervently to his lips ”I know,” said he, in a low, drea more I know that I have lost all reat sorrow; but I can not think what that sorrow is--I know that there has been some misfortune, but I can not remember what”
Beatrice smiled sadly ”It will all come to you in time”
”At first when I waked,” he ht that I had at last entered the spirit-world, and that you had come with me; and I felt a deep joy that I can never express But I see, and I kno, that I ah what shore of all the earth this is, or how I got here, I know not”
”You ently
”And you--you--you,” he murmured, with indescribable intensity--”you, coh, if I were not a man, I could weep my life out at your feet”
”Do not weep,” said she, calmly ”The time for tears , earnestly, and inquiringly, still holding her hand, which he had pressed to his lips An unutterable longing to ask so was evident; but it was checked by a painful e but this,” said he at last, ”that I have felt as though sailing for years over infinite seas Wave after wave has been iuided the boat But I lay weak, with my head supported by you, and your arms around me Yet, of all the days and all the years that ever I have known, these were supre ecstasy And now, if there is sorrow before nedly, for I have had my heaven already”
”You have sailed over seas,” said she, sadly; ”but I was the helpless one, and you saved ht?” he asked, with painful vehe eyes
”I ahed heavily ”Sleep now,” said she, and she again placed her hand upon his forehead Her touch soothed hi sweetness His senses yielded to the subtle incantation, and sleep came to hi Lethargy was still over hiain He slept into the next day On waking there was the saave hiht revived hiainst a tree, while Beatrice knelt near hi and earnestly
”I would wish never to leave this place, but to stay here,” said he ”I know nothing of ling to regain knowledge of that past”
He put his hand in his boso suspended about my neck,” said he, ”which is precious
Perhaps I shall knohat it is after a time”
Then, after a pause, ”Was there not a wreck?” he asked
”Yes; and you saved ht with pirates?”
”Yes; and you saved in to re is it since the wreck took place?”
”It was January 15”
”And what is this?”
”February 6 It is about three weeks”
”How did I get away?”
”In a boat with me and the servant”
”Where is the servant?”
”Away providing for us You had a sun-stroke He carried you up here”