16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
'The kind almoner had tied them down so
tight, and the knots were wet; and in any case
the worst, which sat upon three several ropes,
held my grebe, my flightless Titicaca grebe.
You would never have expected me to throw
away a flightless grebe, for all love? But, however,
the monks had promised to pray for me,
and with no more than moderate skill I survived.'
Killick's insistent cough could be heard at the
door, then his knock: 'Which your guests have
arrived, sir,' he said; but his severity turned to
an affectionate gap-toothed leer as his eyes
wandered to gaze upon Dr Maturin.
'Could you possibly manage dinner,
Stephen?' asked Jack.
'Any dinner at all,' said Stephen with great
conviction: he was fresh from a monastery unusually
ascetic at all times and now deep in a