On the spur of the moment it reminded him of a gale he had once experienced in the North Pacific.

And for the moment the apparition of the gale rose before his eyes--a gale at night, with a clear sky and under a full moon, the huge seas glinting coldly in the moonlight.

Next, he saw the girl in the leper refuge and remembered it was for love of him that she had let him go.
"She was noble," he said simply.

"She gave me life." That was all of the incident, but he heard Ruth muffle a dry sob in her throat, and noticed that she turned her face away to gaze out of the window.

When she turned it back to him, it was composed, and there was no hint of the gale in her eyes.
"I'm such a silly," she said plaintively.