human
Hurry! hurry! she would cry.
gpt
Ah, but you talk too much. She shall float to-morrow. Then to break the ice and flee away!
human
Art in such hurry to lose us, lass?
gpt
But I shall not lose you, cried Madeleine.
human
I am going to sail away with you. I shall bring good fortune and favouring winds; and if any man be sick I will nurse him back to strength. None ever die whom I watch over. The sick are ashamed even to think of death when they see me so full of life. You will take me to my Geoffrey, in the land of the free?
gpt
Ay, and to England if you will, cried the hearty skipper, who had already heard her story.
human
But, my lass, your Geoffrey may be on his way back, and you may but get south to find him gone.
gpt
No, replied Madeleine, shaking her head decidedly.
human
He is not on his way back. I think he is in trouble. I cannot understand, but I feel that he is being punished for what he has not done, and I know that I can help him. No one can help a man like the woman who loves him. Geoffrey wants me, and I must go.
gpt
You shall go, girl, promised the sea-dog; and, turning half aside, muttered:
human
If the boy have played her false, I shall have it in my mind to run out a line from the cross-tree and see him hanged.
gpt
False! cried Madeleine, with a scream of laughter.
human
Is the sun false when the clouds will not let him shine? Why, I would slap your wicked face, and cook you no supper to-night, if I believed that you spoke in faith.