"So do I," he agreed, "very much."
"You do?" she cried. "Then, oh, Peter! why should we wait any longer for a fate that is inevitable? Let us do it now, together!"
"Do what?" said Peter.
"Slip over the side together; it would be quite easy, no one will see us. Let us plunge arm-in-arm into the merciful sea! A little struggle—a moment's battle for breath—then all will be over!"
"Yes, I suppose it would be over then"; he said; "but we should have to swallow such a lot of salt water first!"
He reflected that, even if he emerged from the agonies of drowning, to find himself bi-metalizing with Sophia, the experience would be none the less unpleasant while it lasted. There really must be some limit to his complaisance, and he set it at suicide.
"No," he said at last; "I have always held that to escape a difficulty by putting an end to one's own life is a cowardly proceeding."
"I am a coward," she said; "but, oh, Peter, be a coward with me for once!"
"Ask me anything else!" he said, firmly, "but not to stoop to cowardice. There is really
