‘This I had from Mateu’s own cousin as we danced — ‘

‘You danced?’ cried Jack, far more astonished than if Stephen had said ‘as we ate our cold roast baby’.

‘Certainly I danced. Why would I not dance, pray?’

‘Certainly you are to dance — most uncommon graceful, I am sure. I only wondered . . . but did you really go about dancing?’

Master and Commander – Patrick O’Brian