"Unless what?" asked Susan, with her eyes on the deck. She herself had an idea of the way out, but she wanted him to find it.
"It's very odd that I should feel as I do, as we have been married," said Ruddle; "but I'm that took aback by the facts as they show up against my present lights, that I seem in a dream, like as if I had sternway on me and was in a regular tangle. Tell me, when I was a missionary was I much afraid of you?"
Susan sighed and took him by the arm.
"I think you were a little afraid sometimes, Tom, especially if I was cross with you."
"Ah, I dessay," said her husband. "And if I was scared of you at times when I knew you, it seems natural, don't it, that I should be worse scared of you now that I don't?"
"But you aren't really frightened of me, darling, are you?" asked Susan, once more turning on the water-works.
"When you cry and call me that," said Ruddle, "I don't know where I am, and I want to"
"You want to what?" asked Susan in the sweetest voice.
"I—I don't quite know," stammered Ruddle.
