"Life would not have been worth living without you."
The young girl looked at him with admiring eyes, and nature, for a moment, almost got the mastery over her shyness and the stern claustral way in which, like all Levantine girls, she had been brought up; for her impulse was to throw herself in his arms and leave him to strain her against his manly chest. Besides, at that moment she remembered what a delightful sensation she had had when, awaking from her swoon, she had felt herself carried like a baby in his strong arms. Still, she managed to master herself, and only said:
"So, had it not been for you, we should all have been drowned."
"Oh, I don't say that! Seeing your danger, at the last moment someone else might, perhaps, have volunteered to come to your rescue. Uros and the captain are both very brave; only the captain has a family of his own, and Uros---"
"Oh, no!" said Milenko, laughing; "he is not married, but----"
"Well, you see, he is in love; but please do not mention a word about it to him or anyone else."
"Yes, it is a very great secret--that is to say, not a very great secret either, but it is a matter never to be spoken of."
"I'll tell you, perhaps, some other time."
The young girl burst out laughing. It was a clear, silvery, spontaneous, merry laugh; but still, for a moment, it jarred upon Milenko's nerves. He looked rather downcast, for he was far from thinking the matter to be a joke.
"Because, probably, I shall never know your friend's secret."
The poor fellow's brown complexion grew livid, the muscles of his heart contracted with a spasm, he gasped for breath; the pang he felt was so strong that he could hardly speak; still, he managed to falter:
"Why, are you, perhaps, already engaged to be married?"
"Well, that you might love me a little some day?"
"What, you don't think you could?" he asked, anxiously.
"But I didn't say that I couldn't, only----"
"A girl cannot always choose for herself."
"Suppose my father chooses someone else for me?"
"Why go and suppose such dreadful things? Besides, he ought to remember that I risked my life to save yours; that----"
Milenko stopped for a moment, and then he added:
"Well, I don't like boasting; still, if it had not been for me--well, I suppose your caique would have foundered. No, tell me that you love me, or at least that you might get to love me. Let me ask your father----"