16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
and he had often sat with her when the
weather was foul and the deck impossible;
though their frequent consultations had always
taken place in his cabin, where the light was
better.
Dr Maturin, as the frigate's surgeon, belonged
officially to the gunroom mess: in fact
he nearly always lived in the great cabin with
his particular friend Jack Aubrey, sleeping in
one of the smaller cabins immediately forward
of it, but he remained a member of the mess;
and he was the only member of whom poor
long-horned Oakes was not jealous. Yet he
was the only member who was deeply attached
to Clarissa as a person rather than as
a means to an end, and the only one who
could have taken her affection away from
Oakes, if it was affection that the young man
valued. To be sure, Stephen was perfectly
conscious of her desirability; he was an ordi-