Page 265 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

trust and hope in the convict who had saved their lives had
been transformed into a patronizing kindliness which was
quite foreign to esteem or affection.
‘Come, let us have some supper,’ says Frere. ‘The last we
shall eat here, I hope. He will come back when his fit of
sulks is over.’
But he did not come back, and, after a few expressions of
wonder at his absence, Mrs. Vickers and her daughter, rapt
in the hopes and fears of the morrow, almost forgot that he
had left them. With marvellous credulity they looked upon
the terrible stake they were about to play for as already won.
The possession of the boat seemed to them so wonderful,
that the perils of the voyage they were to make in it were al-
together lost sight of. As for Maurice Frere, he was rejoiced
that the convict was out of the way. He wished that he was
out of the way altogether.

For the Term of His Natural Life