He sighs a little bit. “Although I haven’t known you for very long, you haven’t been difficult at all for me.”

That could be for any number of reasons, including Darcy mellowing out with both the ship and with getting older, the constitution of their old priest, and/or his own fortitude. The end is the same in any case.

“You can hardly do worse than some of the men I had to work with in the Army.” (Or Vickie.) “We were quite a handful for the brass, you know.”