‘As soon as I can, I mean to go down to Bath, to wallow in the warm and sulphurous –’

‘Just what I was about to observe!’ cried Sir Joseph. ‘I am delighted to hear it. It was the very thing I should have recommended if’ – if you had not looked so savage, explosive, obstinate and cantankerous, he thought; but said ‘if it had been my place to advise you.’

HMS Surprise – Patrick O’Brian