Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/59

59

THE CITY BELLE.

She threw down her pail, and, springing from the wharf,
flew toward him, and with a joyful cry, "Godber, is it
you ?" seized the hand which he mechanically stretched
toward her. Had he pressed her to his heart, she would
have received and returned his kiss without affectation.
But she was in no way disconcerted that he did not do
so, for the daughter of the hallig was accustomed to a
more quiet expression of affection, than the passionate
inhabitants of the mainland would have thought proper
on such occasions. But she knew that he had remained
true to her, and even if he had not written this to her,
was he not a child of her own home, where want of faith
between those who have been betrothed from their
childhood, is as unheard-of as that between married
persons ?
  "Where did you come from to-day ? We did not
expect you till to-morrow from Husum, for you were in
the ship which we saw anchored far in the offing yes-
terday ; were you not ? What has become of the ship
then ?" Saying this, she looked eagerly toward the an-
chorage at which she had gazed the day before with
such longing hope.
  "There it is," said Godber, stretching out his hand
toward the wreck.
  "Good God !" cried Maria, now almost sunk on the
breast of her lover. "And so you were struggling with
death while I was dreaming of you so quietly. We
heard but little of the storm in the front room, and sup-
posed it had passed over. But I told mother we ought
to set a light in the back-room, and I should have liked
to watch by it. She thought it might mislead vessels
unacquainted with the coast, and laughed at me be-