They sat there awhile in silence, watching heavy masses of cloud darken the sea and sky; and then Felix lifted his face from Edna's shoulder, and asked timidly: "Did you send Sir Roger away?"
"He goes to Europe to-morrow, I believe."
"Poor Sir Roger! I am sorry for him. I told mamma you never thought of him; that you loved nothing but books and flowers and music."
"How do you know that?"
"I have watched you, and when he was with you I never saw that great shining light in your eyes, or that strange moving of your lower lip, that always shows me when you are really glad; as you were that Sunday when the music was so grand; or that rainy morning when we saw the pictures of the 'Two Marys at the Sepulchre.' I almost hated poor Sir Roger, because I was afraid he might take you to England, and then, what would have become of me? Oh! the world seems so different, so beautiful, so peaceful, as long as I have you with me. Everybody praises you, and is proud of you, but nobody loves you, as I do."
He took her hand, passed it over his cheek and forehead, and kissed it tenderly.
"Felix, do you feel at all sleepy?"
"Not at all. Tell me something more about the animalcula that cause the phosphorescence yonder--making the top of each wave look like a fringe of fire. It is true that they are little round things that look like jelly--so small that it takes one hundred and seventy, all in a row, to make an inch; and that a wineglass can hold millions of them?"
"I do not feel well enough to-night to talk about animalcula. I am afraid I shall have one of those terrible attacks I had last winter. Felix, please don't go to bed for a while at least; and if you hear me call, come to me quickly. I must write a letter before I sleep. Sit here, will you, till I come back?"
For the first time in her life she shrank from the thought of suffering alone, and felt the need of a human presence.
"Edna, let me call mamma. I saw this afternoon that you were not well."
"No, it may pass off; and I want nobody about me but you."
Only a narrow passage divided her room from his; and leaving the door open, she sat down before her desk to answer Mr. Hammond's appeal.
As the night wore on, the wind became a gale; the fitful, bluish glare of the lightning showed fearful ranks of ravenous waves scowling over each others' shoulders; a roar as of universal thunder shook the shore, and in the coral-columned cathedral of the great deep, wrathful ocean played a wild and weird fugue.