“You - It wouldn’t do you any good to speak of those circumstances, I suppose?” he faltered.

“No: not now: no good at all.”

“Forgive me,” he said, resuming his walk. “I had no business - I felt so sorry - I cannot tell you how I sympathize! And yet - I wonder if you will always feel so?”

“No saying how I shall feel when I am a man again,” said I. “You see what I am at present.” And, pulling myself together, I rose to find my new friend quite agitated in his turn.

“I wish we had some more brandy,”


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which were floating around me now at noon; they had been with me when the high sun rose. One was, I think, the very oar which had been my first support; another was a sailor’s cap; but another, which floated nearer, was new to me, as though it had come to the surface while my eyes were turned inwards.


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