Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/98

 guess. It's just faith and feeling—faith in our own people, Lieutenant Hull!"

She saw, as he watched her, that she was disappointing him and that he had been hoping that, somehow, she could resolve the doubts of his own people which possessed him; she saw—as she had observed at Mrs. Corliss'—that his eyes lingered upon her face, upon her hands, as though he liked her; but her stubbornness in upholding those people whom she would not even try to explain, offended him again. He glanced out the port above her.

"We're picking up a cruiser escort," he said suddenly. "Let's go out and look her over."

So they were on deck in the cold and wind again. And during the rest of that day, and upon the following days, almost every hour brought her into some sort of association with him on the decks, in the lounge, or in the writing rooms, during the morning; luncheon at the same table. Then the afternoon, as the morning, would be made up of hours when she would be sitting in the warm, bright saloon with her French war-study book before her and she would be carefully rehearsing "Masque respirateur—respirator; lunettes—goggles; nauge de gaz—gas fumes . . . ." when she would hear his quick, impulsive step or his clear, pleasant voice speaking to someone and Ruth would get combat animé and combat dé cousu hopelessly mixed. She would go out to walk the deck again with Hubert—who was apologetically up and about when the seas were smoother—or with Captain Lescault or Captain Forraker or with "1582" (as she called to herself the Sussex officer and once came near calling him that aloud), when she would come around the corner of