You know we were to have come here in the _Minerva_, which is
actually in port in Malta now, but as she is detained there for some
slight repairs, we did not wait for her. I went on board the _Minerva_
with my husband, who had business with the captain--and there he was.
The captain introduced us. When he heard I was a native of the 'Rock,'
he became quite eager, and asked me many questions about the different
families living there, and told me he intended staying a few days here
on his way to England. He was standing looking so sad when we came on
board, looking out to sea, and he brightened up so when he spoke of
Gibraltar. But, dear child, don't cry, you should rejoice."
For Norah had broken down and was weeping bitterly, uncontrollably. She
could not speak, she only raised Mrs. Somerset's hand to her lips. The
latter saw she was best alone, and was wise enough to leave her.
"Oh Edgar! Edgar!" was the cry of her heart. "Shall I ever really see
you? Can you forgive me?"
Just about the same time as Norah Wylie was weeping in her room, her
heart torn asunder with hopes and fears, her husband was again pacing
the deck of the _Minerva_. They had sailed from Malta the previous day,
but owing to fogs, which had checked their progress, were hardly out of
sight of land.
Captain Wylie's thoughts as he passed up and down were evidently of a
serious nature. For the first time in his life he had began to think
seriously of religious things.
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