The one on the right is probably Charlotte

One of the many pleasures of Patrick O’Brian is his refreshing lack of sentimentality on certain topics. Here, from The Mauritius Command, is the scene in which Captain Aubrey introduces his close friend Dr. Stephen Maturin to Aubrey’s twin daughters:

Jack led him up the stairs into a little sloping room, upon whose floor sat two bald babies, dressed in fresh frocks. They had pale, globular faces, and in the middle of each face a surprisingly long and pointed nose called the turnip to an impartial observer’s mind....

‘Very fine children,’ said Stephen. ‘I should have known them anywhere.’

‘I cannot tell one from t’other,’ said Jack. ‘You would not credit the din they can kick up if things are not quite to their liking. The one on the right is probably Charlotte.’ He stared at them; they stared at him, unwinking. ‘What do you think of them, Stephen?’ he asked, tapping his forehead significantly.

Stephen resumed his professional role. He had delivered some scores of babies at the Rotunda in his student days, but since then his practice had lain among adults, particularly among seafaring adults, and few men of his professional standing could have been worse qualified for this task; however, he picked them up, listened to their hearts and lungs, opened their mouths and peered within, bent their limbs, and made motions before their eyes.

‘How old are they?’ he asked.

‘Why, they must be quite old by now,’ said Jack. ‘They seem to have been here for ever.’