But to such a project, many serious difficulties
presented themselves: I represented to Isabel, that if I did not reach the
opposite tower that night, it would be discovered, when the food put into
my cell remained untasted, that I was gone; and as the conclusion would
necessarily be, that I had leaped into the sea, no more food would be put
into my cell, and consequently, when I did return, I should die of hunger.
"But," said Isabel, "why return ever? Providence seems to delight in
throwing us together,--and if, as unhappily seems too true, the doom of
both of us be to live and die in these towers, why should we not----"
"Live and die together, you would say;" and, in truth, there was reason
in this proposal of Isabel. "Why, indeed, should we not?" said I; but in
yielding so readily to this suggestion, I looked farther than Isabel did.
Isabel had doubtless many charms,--and here, I should at least have nothing
to fear from rivals; but that which weighed with me fully as much as the
prospect of a honey-moon, was this,--that a man who is supposed to be dead,
has greater facilities of escape,--and so, without at that time saying any
thing upon this subject to Isabel, I acquiesced in the proposal of changing
my quarters, and being her guest for the present.
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