But there was
no real debate in his own mind. He would gladly take the remedy if he
could do so with safety to his wife, but not for a thousand lives would
he endanger her soul. Not for the certainty of prolonging his own years
would he take from her the merest chance of overcoming her sin. To do it
for an uncertainty was impossible.
There was hope for him still, if the vessel could but get past these
sultry seas into a cooler climate. One good fresh sea-breeze would do
him more good than any stimulant, and they were slowly gliding to
latitudes where they might meet them at any hour. Once out of the
tropics, and around the Cape of Good Hope, there would be no fear of
exhausting heat in the air they breathed. All his languor would be gone
and the rest of the voyage would bring health and vigor to his fevered
frame. Only let them double the Cape, and a new life in a new world lay
before them.
His brain felt confused and delirious at times, but he knew it so well
that he grew used to sit down silently in the bow of the ship, and let
the dizzy dreams pass over him, careful not to alarm his wife or Ann
Holland.
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