Quarrelling afloat

[sawyl]

I'm very washed out at the moment — too much doing, not enough sleeping — so instead of anything particularly profound, here's an amusing quote from chapter 54 of Daniel Deronda:

A lady was obliged to respond to these things suitably; and even if she had not shrunk from quarrelling on other grounds, quarreling with Grandcourt was impossible; she might as well have made angry remarks to a dangerous serpent ornamentally coiled in her cabin without invitation. And what sort of dispute could a woman of any pride and dignity begin on a yacht?

I'll have to remember to pass that on to my parents...