Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/80

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IN MAREMMA.

blood. She began to grow giddy and to feel deaf, the noise of the winds was so loud, the swirl of the water was so riotous. She began to be bewildered and dull; and she kept saying, ever and ever and ever aloud, 'what will he do if I drown? what will he do?'

That was her only distinct thought. All the rest, without and within, was darkness, utter darkness, in which she was thrown hither and thither and buffeted by the winds and the waves. At last one great wave took her and cast her over the boat's side. She flung up her hands in vain, the boat was no more there; the weight of the leaping billow dashed her on her back, and the salt foam poured between her lips.

'What will he do?' she thought. 'What will he do?'

That was her last conscious moment.

The sea closed over her and she knew no more.