Which it describes what Diana Villiers must tolerate to be with Dr. Stephen Maturin (SPOILERS):
- Put up with unmitigated, educated obstinacy.
- Accept that you will not always know everything about him.
- Balance his awkwardness with your poise and radiance at academic events.
- Be prepared that he will disappear on dangerous, secret missions with no real expectation of return.
- Understand that as long as he is on assignment with Capt. Jack Aubrey, there is always the possibility that he may wreck on a lee shore.
- Expect that you may lose things very valuable to yourself to help him.
- Know that he may end up imprisoned, even tortured, and that his only possibility of escape may be by making a deal with a dangerous agent.
- Love him, in spite of it all.
Not that Maturin has it easy dealing with his equally stubborn mate. Not that Maturin is alone having woman troubles. Yet
The Surgeon's Mate is, even through sea battles, tense diplomatic negotiations, and close calls with French interrogation, above all a love tale, if only as it could be written by Patrick O'Brian. We pick up where we left off at the end of
The Fortune of War...
 |
| "H.M.S. Shannon Leading Her Prize the American Frigate Chesapeake into Halifax Harbour" by John Christian Schetky |
(1) The battered
Shannon brings the battered
Chesapeake into
Halifax, Nova Scotia. Grave feelings among the crew quickly give way to cheer as they are given a heroes' welcome. The curious trio of Capt. Jack Aubrey, Dr. Stephen Maturin, and Diana Villiers goes ashore. Aubrey longs for news of home but instead finds that two of his foes, Harte and Wray, have achieved further power in the Admiralty. Maturin delivers the coup of Johnson's papers to Major Beck, the Marine in charge of intelligence. He acquires a certificate of local liberty for Villiers, who is otherwise viewed as a renegade British citizen. Although they are barely able to find a bed in the crowded town, Maturin finally gets sleep. Villiers is happy as she prepares for a celebratory ball, but she once more rebuffs Maturin's insistence on getting married.
 |
| "HMS Asia docked in Halifax Harbour, 1797" by George Gustavus Lennock |
