She bowed her head, to hide her eyes; and she went below so quickly it was as though she fled from him.
XVII
Faith had assured herself, from the beginning, that Brander had no real intention of claiming the ambergris was his personal booty. He was too sensible for that, she felt; and he was not greedy....
She had been sure; but like all women, she wished to be reassured. She had given Brander the chance to reassure her, speaking of the 'gris and of Dan'l Tobey's suspicions in the matter. It would have been so easy for Brander to laugh and say: "You know I have no such idea. It belongs to the Sally, of course...." That would have settled the thing, once and for all....
But Brander had not been frank and forthright. He had only said: "There's no harm in puzzling Mr. Tobey...." And when she had suggested that there might be harm for Brander in his attitude, his eyes had hardened with something like defiance in them.... He had said he was not worried as to what Dan'l might think or do. He thus remained as much of a puzzle to Faith as ever.... If he had deliberately planned to steal a place in her thoughts, he could have taken no better means. Faith, with her growing sense of responsibility for the Sally, for the success of the voyage, for the good renown of Noll Wing, was acutely concerned when anything threatened that success. The ambergris was properly a part of the Sally's takings.... Brander must see it so. Did he mean to push his claim, to make trouble?...
She tried to find her answer to this question in Brander's face; she began to study him daily.... She perceived the strength of the man, and his poise and assurance. Brander was very sure of himself and of his capabilities, without in the least overrating them. He knew himself for a man; he bore himself as a man.... Faith respected him; without her realizing it, this respect and liking grew.
Unconsciously, Brander was ranked now and then in her thoughts beside her husband, Noll Wing; she compared the two men without willing to make the comparison. And in the process, she studied Noll Wing more closely than she had ever studied him before. It was at this time that she first marked the fact that Noll was shrinking, wasting the flesh from his bones. His skin was becoming loose; it sagged. His great chest was drawing in between his shoulders; his shoulders slumped forward. Also Faith saw, without understanding, that the great cords of his neck were beginning to stand out under the loose skin, that hollows were forming about them. The man's bull neck was melting away.... Faith saw, though she did not fully understand; she knew that Noll was aging, nothing more....
She was drawn to Noll, at this discovery, by a vast tenderness; but this tenderness was impersonal. She thought it a recrudescence of her old, strong love for the man; it was in fact only such a feeling as she might have had for a sick or wounded beast. She pitied Noll profoundly; she tried to make him happy, and comfortable. She sought, now and then, to woo him to cheerfulness and mirth; but Noll was shrinking, day by day, into a more confirmed habit of complaint; he whined constantly, where in the old days he would have stormed and commanded. And he resented Faith's attentions, resented her very presence about him. One day she went herself into the galley and prepared a dish she thought would please him; when she told him what she had done, he exclaimed: