you are to marry me in three weeks, so don't let us talk
about dying; you have a little cold, that is all, and I'll give you time
to get over it, and recover your voice, and get those ugly blisters off
your face.'

'Is it _very_ ugly?' she whispered, hiding it against my shoulder.

'Very ugly, indeed, and I hope it will stay so, till we are married;
then we shall have no more flirting with Tom Hayes; I would like to
have murdered him yesterday, when--when you wanted me to drown, and not
him, Dora.'

'Oh, George! I didn't know the dreadful danger till it was too late, and
you were gone. I knew you were brave, and could swim, and he wasn't or
couldn't; I thought you would do it easily, and never dreamed you could
be drowned, till you were in the water, and he told me, and then--'

'And then my little heroine risked her life to save me.'

'I wouldn't have cared to live without!'

'And cried over me when I was landed?'

'I was so glad and thankful, dear George.'

'But was ashamed to let Tom Hayes see it afterward.'

'No, only ashamed to speak to you, because I had behaved so badly;
afraid you would order me away from your sight forever, as soon as you
were able. I am bad, I know; but indeed, indeed I am not so bad as you
think me!'

Ah! how easy it was to believe it, with that sweetly humble voice
whispering in my ear; those pleading eyes truthfully looking into mine;
the new charm of her timid, deprecating manner, going straight to my
unfortunate, yielding heart, and conquering at once all the territory
that had not succumbed to her earlier graces, when in health and
spirits. Yet I had seen something of this 'death-bed repentance' before,
and I should have preferred to marry her at once, while the swelled nose
and the weakened eyes disabled her from coquetry, rather than to use my
humble skill to restore her to health and beauty, and the society of Mr.
Hayes--rewarded by having my marriage indefinitely postponed, and my
promised bride infinitely tormenting me. A physician is accustomed to
see promises, made in sickness, unperformed in health, and the debt of
gratitude, or otherwise, to the medical attendant left unacknowledged
and unpaid: he is obliged to calculate the chances of his fees pretty
closely, you see. These thoughts I was weakly about to reveal to Dora,
when a tumbling and snorting at the door announced Rover, and happily
prevented me.

'Shall I let him in?' I politely inquired of the invalid.