Part 31 (2/2)

”How long have I been in this place?”

”A fortnight”

Nuan to return Yet, in his efforts to regain knowledge of himself, Beatrice was still the hts His drea itself with his real life

”But you,” he cried, earnestly--”you, how have you endured all this? You are weary; you have worn yourself out for ratitude? You have watched ht and day Will you not have more care of your own life?”

The eyes of Beatrice kindled with a soft light ”What is ain to you? But I deny that I a eyes His recovery was rapid In a few days he was able to go about Cato procured fish froame from the woods, so as to save the provisions of the boat, and they looked forward to the tiht resunant, and an hourly struggle noent on within hiland? What could he do? Why should he ever part from her?

”Oh, to burst all links of habit, and to wander far away, On froateways of the day!”

In her presence he ht find peace, and perpetual rapture in her smile

In the midst of such meditations as these her voice once arose fros, such as she could improvise It spoke of summer isles amidst the sea; of soft winds and spicy breezes; of eternal rest beneath over-shadowing pal strain--a strain of enchant by one who felt the intoxication of the scene, and whose genius i to the song of the sirens It seeh all nature there joined in that h the very winds were lulled into caluor stole upon all his senses

”Sweet, sweet, sweet, God Pan, Sweet in the fields by the river, Blinding sweet, oh great God Pan, The sun on the hills forgot to die, And the lily revived, and the dragon-fly Caaerun opa], the [Greek: opa kallimon] of the sirens

For she had that divine voice which of itself can charenius which of itself could give words which the ht clothe

Now, as he saw her at a distance through the trees and marked the statuesque cal in her song rather to soliloquize than to sing, breathing forth her music ”in profuse strains of unpreer and the very sweetness of the song put an end to all teht ”Could one like that assent to ive up her life to er numbers She is one who thinks she can interpret the inspiration of Mozart and Handel And who am I?”

Then there came amidst this music a still small voice, like the voice of those helpless ones at home; and this voice seemed one of entreaty and of despair So the teain As for Beatrice, she seemed conscious of no such effect as this

Calht, as the birds sing, because she could not help it Here she was like one of the classic nyenius of the spot--like Calypso, only passionless

Now, the more Brandon felt the power of her presence the erous topics, speaking only of external things, calling upon her to sing of loftier the when he first heard her

Thus he fought down the struggles of his own heart, and crushed out those rising impulses which threatened to sweep him helplessly away

As for Beatrice herself she seeeless, ether passionless, or was this her ht that it was her nature, and that she, like her hetti, found in music that which satisfied all passion and all desire

In about a fortnight after his recovery from his stupor they were ready to leave The provisions in the boat were enough for teeks' sail

Water was put on board, and they bade adieu to the island which had sheltered them

This time Beatrice would not let Brandon rohile the sun was up They rowed at night, and by day tried to get under the shadow of the shore

At last a wind sprang up; they now sailed along swiftly for two or three days At the end of that time they saw European houses, beyond which arose some roofs and spires It was Sierra Leone Brandon's conjectures had been right On landing here Brandon simply said that they had been wrecked in the _Falcon_, and had escaped on the boat, all the rest having perished He gave his name as Wheeler The authorities received these unfortunate ones with great kindness, and Brandon heard that a shi+p would leave for England on the 6th of March