396 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
which silence anti uncertainty rendered intoler¬ 
able. I called out, “ Is all well ?”—A languid 
look, and an evasive reply, confirmed my apprehen¬ 
sion, and sank me in despair. I could no longer 
support myself on the deck. I rushed into my 
cabin. In a few minutes my friend was in my 
presence. I saw him struggling with himself, 
and about to endeavour, by a well meant circumlo¬ 
cution, to break the dreadful tidings he had to com¬ 
municate. “ Let me know,” cried I, “ the worst,— 
tell it me at once.” He grasped my hand with the 
fervour of friendship, while the tear of sympathy 
gushed from his eyes.—“ I am sorry,”—(my 
agony obliged him to speak out), “ Mrs S--— 
is no more.” 
Some of those who glance over these pages, 
may have been the “ sons and daughters of afflic¬ 
tion.” They may know what it is to suffer. Such 
will not withhold the sympathetic sigh from one, 
who, having begun this narrative, in the hope of 
obtaining some alleviation from the poignancy of 
sorrow, finds its concluding pages blotted with 
his tears. 
