1. Until they were married, Hornblower only kissed her. He was still young and innocent enough to believe in sexual purity having value, and he knew that Maria was offering herself only because she thought it was what he wanted.
In the course of his life, Hornblower never extended this courtesy to another woman.
2. Mrs. Mason. No man ever puts up with his mother in law that much unless he loves his wife and loves her a great deal and cares for her welfare/
3. The sausages, really. He put them in his pocket for a little while on that barge ride, and it was just a little while, but Hornblower smelled them on himself for a week afterwards.
4. The letters. Barbara comes into this one.
Hornblower never much bothered to write to her, but he had written regularly to Maria. Barbara had seen those letters, in fact; at the extremity of her pain, Maria had asked for Barbara to bring them to her out of the bottom drawer. She had been in too much pain to read them or look at them, but she held the packet to her chest and caressed them. Pressed them to her cheek, tried to undo the knot of the ribbon that held them together, and sobbed when she did not have the strength to do it.
It didn't much matter to Barbara that, when she read them afterwards, she realized that Hornblower habitually reused material and that he copied entire bits from previous letters. Hornblower had used waterproof Navy ink to write the letters, and they had come, regularly. Later, when she helped in the administration of Horatio's estate, she found some letters that he had begun writing her while aboard the Lydia, but never finished.
5. When Richard Arthur asked about it, Hornblower explained.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-09-01 02:29 am (UTC)In the course of his life, Hornblower never extended this courtesy to another woman.
2. Mrs. Mason. No man ever puts up with his mother in law that much unless he loves his wife and loves her a great deal and cares for her welfare/
3. The sausages, really. He put them in his pocket for a little while on that barge ride, and it was just a little while, but Hornblower smelled them on himself for a week afterwards.
4. The letters. Barbara comes into this one.
Hornblower never much bothered to write to her, but he had written regularly to Maria. Barbara had seen those letters, in fact; at the extremity of her pain, Maria had asked for Barbara to bring them to her out of the bottom drawer. She had been in too much pain to read them or look at them, but she held the packet to her chest and caressed them. Pressed them to her cheek, tried to undo the knot of the ribbon that held them together, and sobbed when she did not have the strength to do it.
It didn't much matter to Barbara that, when she read them afterwards, she realized that Hornblower habitually reused material and that he copied entire bits from previous letters. Hornblower had used waterproof Navy ink to write the letters, and they had come, regularly. Later, when she helped in the administration of Horatio's estate, she found some letters that he had begun writing her while aboard the Lydia, but never finished.
5. When Richard Arthur asked about it, Hornblower explained.