It will not harm me; joy seldom
kills. Tell me the whole."
So she told him all she knew, and the particulars of her finding Bessie
among the steerage passengers, and having her removed to her room.
"Yes, I see--I understand how the mistake occurred." Grey said. "But why
did not Neil tell me he had been to see her off?"
"He was probably ashamed to let you know that she was in the steerage.
He hoped you would not find her," Miss Grey replied; and Grey exclaimed:
"The coward! If it were not wrong, I should have him;" while a fierce
pang shot through his heart that Bessie was bound to Neil, and that,
though living, she was no nearer to him than if she were dead and in
that grave by which he had so lately stood.
Still it would be something to see her again, to hear her voice, to look
into her eyes, and have her all to himself for the remainder of the
voyage, which he now wished had just commenced.
"Thank God she lives, even though she does not live for me," he said to
himself; and then, at his aunt's suggestion, he tried to control his
nerves and bring himself into a quieter, calmer condition before going
down to see her.
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