Desolation Island (Aubrey & Maturin #5)

by Patrick O'Brian

There was a time, you know,’ he went on, staring out of the window, ‘when I thought it was my duty as a friend – when I thought I was doing the right thing by him to keep them apart. I thought that she was just plain wicked – devilish – wholly destructive – and that she would be the end of him. But now I don’t know: perhaps you should never interfere in such things: too delicate. Yet if you see a fellow walking blindfold into a pit . . . I acted for the best, according to my lights; but it may be that my lights were not of the very brightest kind.’