No! as we have been forced
back from one point, I must try another,--and I hope you will not throw
any impediment in the way. There is every reason why you should return to
Adelaide: your health is seriously impaired,--you are in constant
pain,--and your affairs are going to ruin; on all these considerations I
would urge you to comply with my wishes." Mr. Browne admitted the truth
of what I said, but felt certain that if he left, it would only be to
hear of my having perished in that horrid desert,--that my life was too
valuable to others to be so thrown away,--that he owed me too much to
forsake me, and that he could not do that of which his conscience would
ever after reproach him;--that his brother would attend to his interests,
and that if it were otherwise, it would be no excuse for him to desert
his friend,--that he would acquiesce in any other arrangement, but to
leave me he could not. "Well," I said, "I ask nothing unreasonable from
you, nothing but what the sternness of duty calls for; and if you will
not yield to friendly solicitations, I must order you home." "I cannot
go," he replied; "I do not care for any pecuniary reward for my services,
and will give it up: I want no pay, but desert you I will not." The
reader will better imagine than I can describe, such a scene passing in
the heart of a wilderness, and under such circumstances I may not state
all that passed; suffice it to say, that we at length separated, with an
assurance on Mr.
Pages:
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453