How
cool it would be under the chestnut-trees, or under the church walls!
Mr. Chantrey's sinking, plain enough, and what is to become of us if he
should die before we get to that foreign land? Dear, dear! whoever would
go to sea if they could get only a place to lay their heads on land?"
CHAPTER XVI.
A LONG VOYAGE
It was a dreary and monotonous time. After the sun had gone down, red
and sullen, through the haze, and when the ship left a long track of
phosphorescent light sparkling behind it, Mr. Chantrey would pace up and
down the deck, as he had often walked to and fro in the churchyard paths
in the starlight. He had many things to think of. For his wife his hope
was strengthening; a dim star shone before him in the future. Her brain
was gradually regaining clearness, and her mind strength. Something of
the old buoyancy and elasticity was returning to her, for she would play
sometimes with her child merrily, and her laugh was like music to him.
But how would it be in the hour of temptation, which must come? She said
her craving for stimulants was passing away; but how would she bear
being again able to procure them? He would watch over her and guard her
as long as he lived, but what would become of her if he should die?
This last question was becoming every day more and more urgent.
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