Dorinda felt as though something magnetic and vibrant passed from his hand to hers and now in a voice so low that he could hardly hear her she stammered,
“Are you – s-saying that you – c-care – for me?”
“I love you! I have loved you since the first moment we met. I knew it when we talked together after I had kissed that planter’s importunate wife and you told me that I was generous with my kisses!”
He smiled.
“I knew then that you were different from any other woman I have ever known. Then when you behaved so bravely when the pirates attacked us and when I talked to you as we sailed down the coast, I was aware that something very strange had happened to me.”
He was silent for a moment before he went on,
“It is difficult to make you understand, my lovely one, but I have never really t
