Explanation: Lauren has portrayed Mrs. Ebbling as the leading lady of the story having a magnificent and sturdy body, red-gold hair "drenched with sunlight". Despite her magnificence, she is physically unwell and thus, grateful to her husband for taking her with him at the ships and enduring her illness. She fails to understand her self-worth at this point and even after knowing about her husband's advances towards other women she still has gratitude for him. The narrator is so absorbed by her beauty but Mrs. Ebbling denies his proposal by saying "I had much to give you if you had come earlier" symbolic of her gratefulness and loyalty towards her husband.
