Karl Framm személy

„I do think I prefer it by night,” he said. „Lord Byron was right. Day is far too gaudy.”
„Eh?” Marsh said.
„Don't you remember?” York said. „The poem I recited to you at the boatyards in New Albany. It fits the Fevre Dream so well. She walks in beauty…”
„…like the night,” said Jeffers, adjusting his spectacles. Abner Marsh looked at him, flabbergasted. Jeffers was a demon for chess and ciphering and even went to plays, but Marsh had never heard him recite no poetry before.
„You know Byron!” Joshua said, delighted. For an instant, he looked almost like his own self.
„I do,” Jeffers admitted. One eyebrow arched as he regarded York. „Cap'n, are you suggesting that our days are spent in goodness here on the Fevre Dream?” He smiled. „Why, that'll sure come as news to Hairy Mike and Mister Framm here.”
Hairy Mike guffawed, while Framm protested, „Hey, now, three wives don't mean I ain't good, why most every one of 'em 'ud vouch for me!”
„What the hell you talkin' about?” Abner Marsh put in. Most of the officers and crew looked as confused as he was.
Joshua played with an elusive smile. „Mister Jeffers is reminding me of the final stanza of Byron's poem,” he said. He recited:
„And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!”
„Are we innocent, Cap'n?” Jeffers asked.
„No one is entirely innocent,” Joshua York replied, „but the poem speaks to me nonetheless, Mister Jeffers. The night is beautiful, and we can hope to find peace and nobility in its dark splendor as well. Too many men fear the dark unreasoningly.”
„Perhaps,” said Jeffers. „Sometimes it ought to be feared, though.”
„No,” said Joshua York, and with that he left them, breaking off the verbal fencing match with Jeffers abruptly.

61. oldal, 12. fejezet - Aboard the Steamer FEVRE DREAM, New Orleans, August 1857