Never inclined to talk much, even with me, he was becoming more silent than ever as the voyage continued.

Day by day his interest in that strange man seemed to increase.

He spent as little time as possible in my company.

When not with me he was hounding him about the ship, keeping him in sight from some favorable point of observation.
What was the meaning of it?
The question forced itself upon my mind persistently by day and night, and begat in me a gloomy reticence which Hester was quick to observe.

Every day I expected some revelation from Rayel, but he said nothing about the man in whom he had taken such extraordinary interest.
We had been over a week at sea, and I was sitting alone one afternoon, when Mr.Murmurtot came along and asked if he might introduce an acquaintance of his whom I ought to know.