No Name by Wilkie Collins (good books for 7th graders TXT) 📕

doubt if she’s out of her teens⁠—I’m old enough to be her father. It’s all one; she stops in my mind in spite of me. I’ve had her face looking at me, through the pitch darkness, every step of the way to this house; and it’s looking at me now⁠—as plain as I see yours, and plainer.”

He rose impatiently, and began to walk backward and forward in the room. His sister looked after him, with surprise as well as sympathy expressed in her face. From his boyhood upward she had always been accustomed to see him master of himself. Years since, in the failing fortunes of the family, he had been their example and their support. She had heard of him in the desperate emergencies of a life at sea, when hundreds of his fellow-creatures had looked to his steady self-possession for rescue from close-threatening death⁠—and had not looked in vain. Never, in all her life before, had his sister seen the balance of that calm and equal mind lost as she saw it lost now.

“How can you talk so unreasonably about your age and yourself?” she said. “There is not a woman alive, Robert, who is good enough for you. What is her name?”

“Bygrave. Do you know it?”

“No. But I might soon make acquaintance with her. If we only had a little time before us; if I could only get to Aldborough and see her⁠—but you are going away tomorrow; your ship sails at the end of the week.”

“Thank God for that!” said Kirke, fervently.

“Are you glad to be going away?” she asked, more and more amazed at him.

“Right glad, Lizzie, for my own sake. If I ever get to my senses again, I shall find my way back to them on the deck of my ship. This girl has got between me and my thoughts already: she shan’t go a step further, and get between me and my duty. I’m determined on that. Fool as I am, I have sense enough left not to trust myself within easy hail of Aldborough tomorrow morning. I’m good for another twenty miles of walking, and I’ll begin my journey back tonight.”

His sister started up, and caught him fast by the arm. “Robert!” she exclaimed; “you’re not serious? You don’t mean to leave us on foot, alone in the dark?”

“It’s only saying goodbye, my dear, the last thing at night instead of the first thing in the morning,” he answered, with a smile. “Try and make allowances for me, Lizzie. My life has been passed at sea; and I’m not used to having my mind upset in this way. Men ashore are used to it; men ashore can take it easy. I can’t. If I stopped here I shouldn’t rest. If I waited till tomorrow, I should only be going back to have another look at her. I don’t want to feel more ashamed of myself than I do already. I want to fight my way back to my duty and myself, without stopping to think twice about it. Darkness is nothing to me⁠—I’m used to darkness. I have got the highroad to walk on, and I can’t lose my way. Let me go, Lizzie! The only sweetheart I have any business with at my age is my ship. Let me get back to her!”

His sister still kept her hold of his arm, and still pleaded with him to stay till the morning. He listened to her with perfect patience and kindness, but she never shook his determination for an instant.

“What am I to say to William?” she pleaded. “What will he think when he comes back and finds you gone?”

“Tell him I have taken the advice he gave us in his sermon last Sunday. Say I have turned my back on the world, the flesh, and the devil.”

“How can you talk so, Robert! And the boys, too⁠—you promised not to go without bidding the boys goodbye.”

“That’s true. I made my little nephews a promise, and I’ll keep it.” He kicked off his shoes as he spoke, on the mat outside the door. “Light me upstairs, Lizzie; I’ll bid the two boys goodbye without waking them.”

She saw the uselessness of resisting him any longer; and, taking the candle, went before him upstairs.

The boys⁠—both young children⁠—were sleeping together in the same bed. The youngest was his uncle’s favorite, and was called by his uncle’s name. He lay peacefully asleep, with a rough little toy ship hugged fast in his arms. Kirke’s eyes softened as he stole on tiptoe to the child’s side, and kissed him with the gentleness of a woman. “Poor little man!” said the sailor, tenderly. “He is as fond of his ship as I was at his age. I’ll cut him out a better one when I come back. Will you give me my nephew one of these days, Lizzie, and will you let me make a sailor of him?”

“Oh, Robert, if you were only married and happy, as I am!”

“The time has gone by, my dear. I must make the best of it as I am, with my little nephew there to help me.”

He left the room. His sister’s tears fell fast as she followed him into the parlor. “There is something so forlorn and dreadful in your leaving us like this,” she said. “Shall I go to Aldborough tomorrow, Robert, and try if I can get acquainted with her for your sake?”

“No!” he replied. “Let her be. If it’s ordered that I am to see that girl again, I shall see her. Leave it to the future, and you leave it right.” He put on his shoes, and took up his hat and stick. “I won’t overwalk myself,” he said, cheerfully. “If the coach doesn’t overtake me on the road, I can wait for it where I stop to breakfast. Dry your eyes, my dear, and give me a kiss.”

She was like her brother in features and complexion, and she had a touch of her brother’s spirit; she