We have been married for five-and-twenty years
now, and I have heard this sort of thing again and again, but although we
have lived in wild places where anything might happen to us, nothing out
of the way ever has happened; in fact, we have always been most mercifully
preserved."
"That's true, father, still I am not sure; perhaps because I am rather
that way myself, sometimes. Thus I _know_ that she is right about me; no
harm will happen to me, at least no permanent harm. I feel that I shall
live out my life, as I feel something else."
"What else, Rachel?"
"Do you remember the lad, Richard Darrien?" she asked, colouring a little.
"What? The boy who was with you that night on the island? Yes, I remember
him, although I have not thought of him for years."
"Well, I feel that I shall see him again."
Mr. Dove laughed. "Is that all?" he said. "If he is still alive and in
Africa, it wouldn't be very wonderful if you did, would it? And at any
rate, of course, you will one day when we all cease to be alive. Really,"
he added with irritation, "there are enough bothers in life without
rubbish of this kind, which comes from living among savages and absorbing
their ideas. I am beginning to think that I shall have to give way and
leave Africa, though it will break my heart just when, after all the
striving, my efforts are being crowned with success.
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