HMS Surprise (Aubrey & Maturin, #3)

by Patrick O'Brian

He was blaming his particular friend for romantic notions the other day – the friend who is to marry the daughter of that woman we saw just now – and if I had not been so shocked by his condition, I should have been tempted to laugh. He is himself a perfect Quixote: an enthusiastic supporter of the Revolution until ’93; a United Irishman until the rising, Lord Edward’s adviser – his cousin, by the way – ’ ‘Is he a Fitzgerald?’ ‘The wrong side of the blanket. And now Catalan independence. Or perhaps I should say, Catalan independence from the beginning, simultaneously with the others. But always heart and soul, blood and purse in some cause from which he can derive no conceivable personal benefit.’ ‘Is he romantic in the common sense?’ ‘No. So chaste indeed that at one time we were uneasy: Old Subtlety was particularly disturbed. There was one liaison, however, and that set our minds at rest. A young woman of very good family: it ended unhappy, of course.’