Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/141

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LADY ANNE GRANARD.
139

compel her to marry whom she will. I must not talk of her; hunger has come into my door quite sufficiently to send love out of the window."

"It is hard on Georgiana, whose mother has given a formal consent, and who is at this very moment breaking her little heart for you. However, I do not wonder at your hunger having a considerable effect, for I could do very well with my own tiffin, as we have often seen it in days past."

"I must see how the water in the hold is getting on. The poor fellows are getting so weak, though there are still many, the work can scarcely be per formed."

"I will go with you, I am a fresh hand; I will do my best."

Lord Meersbrook did enough to convince himself that he had overtaxed his strength of late, and to prove to the crew that he was own brother to him they called their "noble captain," and whom they devoutly believed to be the best and cleverest man beneath the sky. Every one felt that he owed his life to his captain's knowledge and ceaseless exertion, and valueless as that life might seem to be under their privations and labours, all were grateful for its preservation and the necessity of perpetually labouring to that end undoubtedly prevented them from yielding to that despondency natural to their awful state. So slow had been their progress for