'
'Ah! but, Winnie, I am under a solemn oath and pledge to bear this
penalty; and we part to-night, That shriek which so appalled you--'
'Well, well, the shriek?' said she, in a frenzy of impatience.
I made no answer, but she answered herself.
'That shriek was a call to you,' she cried, and then burst into a
passion of tears. 'It _cannot_ be,' she said. 'It cannot and shall
not be; God is too good to suffer it,' Then she fixed her eyes upon
me, and sobbed: 'Ah, it is _true_! I feel it is all true! Yes, they
are calling you, and that is why my soul answered the call. Ah, when
I saw you just now lift your head from my breast with a face grey and
wizened as an old man's--when I saw you look at me, I knew that
something dreadful had happened. Oh, I knew, I knew! but I thought it
had happened to _me_. The love and pity in your eyes when you opened
them upon me made me think it was my trouble, and not yours, that
disturbed you. And now I know it is yours, and you are going to die!
They are calling you. Yes, you are going to let the tide drown you!
Oh, my love my love!' and her grief was so acute that I knew not at
first whether in this I had done well after all.
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