Go aloft when ye think it less than foolish. Almost I added, Watch not only north and east. But I looked in her eye and saw beyond a brain nimble enough to know already or to deduce in an instant the wiliness of icebergs, how they may ride a deep current to emerge far south of any expected appearance. Will she play the fool and scamper up prematurely on some female whim? No, not Una. She’s seen too much. She’s seen him, lying trussed up in my hammock here like a Kentucky ham. The hectic flush lies on him. There may be pneumonia in him. But he’s young. He could fight that. If there’s fight in an addled brain. Despite the hectic, there’s a comeliness about his features. She loves him well. He’s blessed, I think, in such a wife. If people jeer his madness, her nose will be up at the topgallant level. Still, she’s little more than a girl. Last night in the storm, I thought of her safely within this room, and I was glad of it. She’ll find some hut in Nantucket and make it home.
