<blockquote>“Stephen, use your spectacles, tell me if I don’t mistake what I read.”
Maturin took the paper from across the table. “Your eyes do not deceive you, dear. You are made full Admiral, Admiral of the Blue, effective this week. I give you joy of it.”
“Admiral of the Blue,” repeated Jack, wonderingly. “Can it really be so. It seems just yesterday…” And here he gazed off, thinking, as Stephen was, of the very moment he had first raised a blue pennant at his mizzen-mast.</blockquote>
