Here the curate interrupted his reading to remark, that he feared he had
spoiled the pathos of the child's words, by translating them into English;
but that they must gain more, for the occasion, by being made intelligible
to his audience, than they could lose by the change from their original
form.

"Herbert's sympathies had by this time made him suspect that the child
must be talking of the sea, which somehow she had come to regard as her
mother. He asked,

"'Where does your father live, then?'

"'I have not any father,' she answered. 'I had one, but mother took him.'

"Several other questions Herbert put; but still the child's notions ran in
the same channel. They were wild notions, but uttered with confidence as
if they were the most ordinary facts. It seemed that whatever her
imagination suggested, bore to her the impress of self-evident truth; and
that she knew no higher reality.

"By this time it was almost dark.

"'I must go home,' said Herbert.

"'I will go with you,' responded the girl.

"She ran along beside him, but in the discursive manner natural to her;
till, coming to one of the paths descending towards the shore, she darted
down, without saying good-night even.