You think I shall never get any better; you mean my cough will go on getting worse, and I shall get thinner and thinner, and weaker and weaker, and then I shall die. I hope I shall go to Heaven, Michael. I don’t think I have done anything very wicked; you know I’ve not been at school much among other boys, so it’s not been so difficult. I remember, though, I helped to drown some puppies once. I could not help watching Thomas do it, and then I remember I held one under the water, when I saw it put up its poor little head. I can’t think what made me, and afterwards I remember poor old Flo came and smelt my hands and licked them, and I felt so sorry then. Well, Michael, I’ll try and be patient, and not be cross any more, and if I die when I’m a boy, you’ll be sure to know me when you come, Michael; and if I were to live to be a man, you might not, you know, Michael; I should have changed so, and it’s eighteen months now since you saw me, Michael. But I want to ask you about Katie again. Did she mean she did not like you?”
“Not like me well enough, Harry, she meant.”
“’Pon my word, Michael, then I think she’s changed her mind, and I’ll tell you why. When I came back the first day I met you and told her and mother you were blind, she never spoke, certainly, but she cried; I saw her, and often I see her eyes full of tears after you’ve been here.”
“Yes; she is sorry for me, Harry, that is all.”
“I don’t think it is all, Michael. Mother’s very sorry for you, but she doesn’t cry. Here come three more schooners going to anchor round the Point: there’s a regular fleet of them.”
The door opened; how the wind howled! It was Katherine, bringing Harry’s medicine. She put it down on the little table by him, and smoothed his hair and kissed his forehead. “Such a storm, Harry, coming on!” Harry pulled her down close to him, and whispered something. Michael could not hear all; but his own name he heard several times. Then Katherine stood upright, and said:
“Hush, Harry; will you take your medicine?” And Michael heard her voice tremble.
“No, I won’t take it, Katie, till you answer my question; and my cough’s been very bad this evening, so I ought to have it at once. Michael says, you said you’d rather not be his wife, and I want to know if you’d rather not now, or if you’ve changed your mind about it.”
“Harry, no more of this, or I shall go back to Oldcourt,” said the quiet, calm voice, not quiet or calm now.
“He is too young to know all he is saying; forgive him,” he added.
“Oh, Michael, don’t be angry with me; but indeed she’s quite crimson, and the tears in her eyes; and if you would only just ask her yourself, you would see. Dear Michael, you know I shall never live to be a man; and after I’ve got thinner and thinner, and weaker and weaker, you’ll have no one to take any care of you, and I feel so sure Katie would like it now, though she didn’t then.”
“Harry, I told you your sister was very sorry for me, nothing more.”
“Sorry! she was very sorry when the cat died. I don’t mean that. I can see her face, and you can’t. How stupid you are, Michael! Oh, Katie, you know he doesn’t like asking you now he’s blind; and, if I were you, I would just put my arms round his neck, and tell him I should like it so much, without his asking me.”
“No, Harry, you could not, if you were me,” said Katherine, and her voice was more than trembling now, it was sobbing.
She was a prisoner; Harry had tight hold of her hand; and when he talked of growing weaker and weaker, and thinner and thinner, she had knelt beside him, between his couch and Michael Lee; and the blind man knew by her voice she was kneeling down, and he stretched out his hand, and it rested on her small head and bright glossy hair. Katherine was not pretty; but she was tall and slight, with a small head set on her throat like a queen, and quantities of bright glossy hair twisted round and round. He, Michael Lee, put his hand on it, and said: “Katherine,” and that was all: and she did not answer at first, only he felt her turn from Harry’s couch more towards him, and then she said, softly:
“Can’t you see me the least bit, Michael?”
And he said, “No, Katherine; I would give all I have in the world to look in your face now, darling.”
And then Harry said: “I’ll tell you, Michael, what she looks like, and don’t give Oldcourt and Frisky and all away for nothing but that. She’s not so red as she was, but she’s crying. Oh, now she’s hid her face, and I can’t tell you what she’s like.”
She had hidden her face, but it was hidden on Michael Lee’s other hand, and he felt her hot tears on it, and he said:
“Katherine, if you stay one moment longer, I shall believe what Harry told me.”
She did not move. He stroked the bright, glossy hair, and then passed his arm round her and drew her closer to him, and said something in such a whisper that Harry could not hear: and Harry rubbed his hands and said:
“Hurrah! I suppose I’d better take my medicine now, for I believe Katie’s quite forgotten it.”
So she rose and gave it him with one hand, for Michael had the other; and Harry drank it, made a face, and said:
“I shan’t be satisfied till you have put your arms round his neck and told him you are very sorry for ever having said you would not like it; it was such a shame!”
So she knelt down again, and did put her arms round his neck (not Harry’s), and said something, too, which Harry could not hear; and Michael Lee stretched out one arm to Harry, and with the other gathered her up quite close to him, and said:
“I pray God you may never repent, my Katherine. And Harry, my boy, you can see her face, and I cannot, as you said just now; and if ever you see her cry, or look unhappy, I trust