"Oh, very great! You wish for all their propensities, without the power to put them in practice."
"After all, there were fine things done by those Vikinger," said Aveline. "They had courage."
"Oh, courage! that is born with a man; if he has it not, it is a deformity, not a vice. Just as if he were born without a nose."
"You would respect courage more, Mr. Haveloc," said Aveline, "if you knew what fear was."
"I never had such a compliment paid me before," said Mr. Haveloc, laughing.
"We have a right to pay you compliments, you know," said Mrs. Fitzpatrick, who was seated a little apart, with a book in her hand. "But you do not stand up for the water thieves, or land thieves either."
"He pretends to have no enthusiasm," said Aveline, smiling.
"On the contrary," said Mr. Haveloc, "I admit that time mellows the proceedings of such gentry; and I own to an enthusiastic desire to see them treated as they deserve."
"I was very glad, Miss Fitzpatrick, when our Calabrian friends were duly sent to the galleys."
"You could not have a prettier name for your yacht, 'the Ariel,'" said Aveline. "I am sure it is a beautiful craft, though I am no judge of such things."
"The Ariel was christened before I had her," said Mr. Haveloc. "If I meant to keep her, I should take the liberty to change her name."
"And what would you call her?" asked Aveline, with some curiosity.
Mr. Haveloc, hesitated a little, and then said, "the Pearl."
"And I am very fond of pearls," said Aveline. "How many things there are, Mr. Haveloc, the very names of which recalls much that is beautiful in poetry to one's memory. The Pearl, the violet, the lark."
"True enough," said Mr. Haveloc, "a robin is a prettier bird, but he has not been so much be-rhymed. A pistol is a handier weapon than a sword, but it would make a sorry figure in a lyric."
"And a grand pianoforte," said Aveline, laughing, "will never be appreciated with tears and moonlight, like a lute."
"And a rascally pirate will be hung in chains, to the great delight of all sober people, while a horse Viking, or even a Spanish buccaneer, would be exalted in ballad, or blank verse."
"Allow," said Aveline, "that people cannot live _well_, who live only in the present time."