16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
'I am glad of that,' thought Stephen, waving
his hat. 'It will make the party less awkward.'
He did not see Martin again that evening, but
he thought of him from time to time; and
when he had turned in, when he was lying in
his cot, very gently rocking on the quiet sea,
he reflected not so much upon the outburst of
that afternoon as upon the notion of changing
identity. He had known it often enough. A delightful
child, even a delightful early adolescent,
interested in everything, alive, affectionate,
would turn into a thick, heavy, stupid
brute and never recover: ageing men would
become wholly self-centred, indifferent to
those who had been their friends, avaricious.
Yet apart from the very strong, very ugly passions
arising from inheritance or political disagreement
he had not known it in men neither
young nor old. He swung, and thought, his
mind wandering free, sometimes to the allied