CHAPTER XV.
ANITRA A few minutes later they were discussing this amazing possibility.
"I have no reason for this conclusion,--this hope," admitted Mr.Ransom.
"It is instinct with me, an intuition, and not the result of my judgment.
It came to me when she first addressed me down by the mill-stream.

If you consider me either wrong or misled, I confess that I shall not be able to combat your decision with any argument plausible enough to hold your attention for a moment." "But I don't consider you either wrong or misled," protested the other.
"That is," he warily added, "I am ready to accept the correctness of the possibility you mention and afterwards to note where the supposition will lead us.

Of course, your first sensation is that of relief." "It will be when I am no longer the prey of doubts." "Notwithstanding the mystery ?" "Notwithstanding the mystery.

The one thing I have found it impossible to contemplate is her death;--the extinction of all hope which death alone can bring.

She has become so blended with my every thought since the hour she vanished from my eyes and consequently from my protection, that I should lose the better part of my self in losing her.