And then she found Isobel looking at her with frightened eyes.
"Did you hear?" came the tense whisper.
"Yes."
"And you are content to let him go?"
"Ah, God! Yes, content."
"But it is folly. He is the captain. He should not go. We have
risked enough already. Who are these men for whose sake he leaves you,
and all of us?"
"I know not, nor do I greatly care, may Heaven help me and them."
"Then you should appeal to him to abandon this mad undertaking. It is
not fair to you. It is more than unfair to those who have entrusted
their lives to his keeping."
Isobel would have risen in her excitement, had not Elsie leaped to her
feet.
"Oh, Isobel," she cried, all a-quiver with disdain, "can you not for
once conquer the self that is destroying your very soul? Neither by
word nor act shall you interfere between Arthur Courtenay and his duty.
Would you have him cling ignobly to life like that poor dandy whom he
has sent to herd with savages? Be sure he has not forgotten those who
are beholden to him. We are his first care. Let it be mine to leave
him unhindered in the task he has undertaken!"
Isobel was cowed into silence.
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