“‘Is Teach delivering his Christmas oration?’ Bonney asked.

Teach’s face in the light of young Scott’s torch was wet with tears.

‘This island!’ Teach declared, ‘You must understand, this island — It is so beautiful!‘

‘Yes, yes,’ Bonney said dryly. ‘Beautiful island. We’re at that stage now, are we?’

‘And this island, this paradise, it demands, it is worth — sacrifices. Hard sacrifices.‘

As one of Madame Reckoner’s most trusted confidants, Dr. Henri Teach makes it his business to befriend all newcomers to the island in whom Madame takes a special interest. It’s his mission to ensure that, as newcomers, they act “sensibly” without running afoul of the island’s quaint mores or customs, especially when it comes to industriousness and the hard-headed realism that Madme Reckoner considers such an integral part of Touperdu’s culture.