"
"Heaven forbid!" she cried, in such sudden and genuine dismay as to make
him laugh, and to bring a smile to her own lips against herself.
"I've got some more to say to you," Sheldon pursued. "I did try to
protect you from every other man in the Solomons, and from yourself as
well. As for me, I didn't dream that danger lay in that quarter. So I
failed to protect you from myself. I failed to protect you at all. You
went your own wilful way, just as though I didn't exist--wrecking
schooners, recruiting on Malaita, and sailing schooners; one lone,
unprotected girl in the company of some of the worst scoundrels in the
Solomons. Fowler! and Brahms! and Curtis! And such is the perverseness
of human nature--I am frank, you see--I love you for that too. I love
you for all of you, just as you are."
She made a _moue_ of distaste and raised a hand protestingly.
"Don't," he said. "You have no right to recoil from the mention of my
love for you. Remember this is a man-talk. From the point of view of
the talk, you are a man. The woman in you is only incidental,
accidental, and irrelevant. You've got to listen to the bald statement
of fact, strange though it is, that I love you."
"And now I won't bother you any more about love.
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