all those offices which Dunham delighted to render, and many besides:
being an invalid, she needed devotion. She had refused Dunham before
going out to Europe with her mother, and she had written to take
him back after she got there. He was now on his way to join her in
Dresden, where he hoped that he might marry her, and be perfectly
sacrificed to her ailments. She only lacked poverty in order to be
thoroughly displeasing to most men; but Dunham had no misgiving save
in regard to her money; he wished she had no money.

"A good deal more motion, isn't there?" he said to Lydia, smiling
sunnily as he spoke, and holding his hat with one hand. "Do you
find it unpleasant?"

"No," she answered, "not at all. I like it."

"Oh, there isn't enough swell to make it uncomfortable, yet," asserted
Dunham, looking about to see if there were not something he could do
for her. "And you may turn out a good sailor. Were you ever at sea
before?"

"No; this is the first time I was ever on a ship."

"Is it possible!" cried Dunham; he was now fairly at sea for the first
time himself, though by virtue of his European associations he seemed
to have made many voyages. It appeared to him that if there was
nothing else he could do for Lydia, it was his duty to talk to her.
He found another stool, and drew it up within easier conversational
distance. "Then you've never been out of sight of land before?"

"No," said Lydia.