16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
ever he is in a very bad way. Whether
he lay with her or not in fact he certainly
wished to do so and he is clerk enough
to know that the wish is the sin; and being
also persuaded that he is diseased
he looks upon himself with horror, unclean
without and within. Unhappily he
has taken yesterday's disagreement
more seriously than I did – our relations
are a cool civility at the best – and in
these circumstances he will not consult
me. Nor obviously can I obtrude my
services. Self-hatred usually seems
more likely to generate hatred of others
(or at least surliness and a sense of
grievance) than mansuetude. Poor fellow,
he is invited to dine in the cabin
this afternoon, and to bring his viola. I
dread some kind of éclat: he is in a very
nervous state.