"
"Hush! hush! don't talk in that way!"
Launce tried the soothing influence of persuasion once more.
"Hundreds and hundreds of people in our situation have married
privately--and have been forgiven afterward," he went on. "I won't ask
you to do anything in a hurry. I will be guided entirely by your wishes.
All I want to quiet my mind is to know that you are mine. Do, do, do
make me feel sure that Richard Turlington can't take you away from me."
"Don't press me, Launce." She dropped on the locker. "See!" she said.
"It makes me tremble only to think of it!"
"Who are you afraid of, darling? Not your father, surely?"
"Poor papa! I wonder whether he would be hard on me for the first time
in his life?" She stopped; her moistening eyes looked up imploringly in
Launce's face. "Don't press me!" she repeated faintly. "You know it's
wrong. We should have to confess it--and then what would happen?" She
paused again. Her eyes wandered nervously to the deck. Her voice dropped
to its lowest tones. "Think of Richard!" she said, and shuddered at the
terrors which that name conjured up.
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