16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
Vidal: there was no intimidating gold lace;
many of the people were as much strangers to
the table as he was himself; and he was very
well with his neighbours, Grainger, whom he
had known from boyhood, and Dutourd,
whom he found particularly sympathetic; while
Dr Maturin, his shipmate in three commissions,
was not a man to put a newcomer out
of countenance.
Indeed, after their first kindly welcome of the
new officer there was no need for taking any
special care of him: Vidal joined in the fine
steady flow of talk, and presently Stephen,
abandoning his social duties, as he so often
did, confined himself to his dinner, his wine
and to contemplating his messmates.
The ransomers on either side of Adams, the
one a supercargo and the other a merchant,
both out of fur-traders, were still in the full joy
of their liberation, and sometimes they