having sailed with Captain Aubrey since the turn of the century, and in fact he could now
almost always discriminate between larboard and starboard: he prided himself extremely
on his acquaintance with fore and aft and some even more recondite nautical terms. 'Tell
me,' she said, 'What is this barge-pole they are always talking about?'
'Ho, as for that, mate,' said Stephen, 'you must understand that a barge is the captain's
particular boat, or pinnace as we say; and the pole is a kind of unarticulated mast.'
He opened the drawing-room door for her, disclosing not one young woman but two,
alternately scorning one another and adoring Jagiello, who sat between them in his
splendid Hussar's uniform, looking amiable but absent. On seeing Stephen he sprang up,
his spurs clashing, and cried 'Dear Doctor, how happy I am to see you,' clasping him in
both arms and smiling down on him very sweetly.
'Admiral Fait home,' called the butler in a hieratic boom, and the clock struck the hour.
More guests arrived, and profiting by the frequently opened door the kitchen cat glided
in, low to the ground, and swarmed up Stephen's back to his left shoulder, where it sat
purring hoarsely, rubbing its ear against his wig. Still more guests, one of them being the
banker Nathan, Diana's financial adviser, a man after Stephen's own heart, he too being
wholly devoted to the overthrow of Buonaparte, using his highly-specialized weapons with
singular efficiency. And although the ceremony was spoilt by an ugly scene when the
butler removed the cat, they did at last move into the dining-room, where they sat down to
as good a meal as London could offer, for in spite of her sylph-like form Diana was rather
greedy and in addition to an educated taste in wine she possessed an excellent cook. His
talents had on this occasion been directed to the preparation of all Stephen's favourite
dishes.
'May I help you to some of these truffles, ma'am?' said he to his right-hand neighbour, a
dowager whose influential countenance had helped to re-establish Diana's reputation,
damaged by ill-judged connections in India and the United States and only partially
restored by her marriage.
'Alas, I dare not,' she said. 'But it would give me great pleasure to see you do so. If you
will take an old woman's advice, you will eat up all the truffles that come your way, while
your innards can still withstand 'em.'
'Then I believe I shall,' said Stephen, plunging a spoon into the pyramid. 'It will be long
before I see another. Tomorrow, with the blessing, I shall be aboard ship, and then hard
tack, salt-horse, dried peas and small beer must be my lot: at least until that Buonaparte is
brought down.'
'Let us drink to his confusion,' said the dowager, raising her glass. The whole table drank
to his confusion, and then at due intervals to Dr Maturin's return, to his very happy return,
to the Royal Navy, to one another, and then standing - a point of some difficulty to Miss
Trevor, who was obliged to cling to Jagiello's arm ? to the King. In the midst of all this
cheerfulness, of this excellent claret, burgundy and port, Stephen looked anxiously at the
clock, a handsome French cartel on the wall behind Mr Nathan's head: he was to take the
Portsmouth mail, and he had a mortal horror of missing coaches. To his distress he saw
that the hands had not moved since the lobster bisque; like most of the clocks in Diana's
house the cartel had stopped, and he knew that decency forbade even a surreptitious
glance at his watch. Yet although he and Diana lived lives more independent than most
married pairs they were very, very close in other respects: she caught his look and called