Nostromo - A Tale of the Seaboard.pdf - Planet eBook

me whether his talk is the voice of destiny or simply a bitof clap-trap eloquence? There’s a good deal of eloquence ofone sort or another produced in both Americas. The air ofthe New World seems favourable to the art of declamation.Have you forgotten how dear Avellanos can hold forth forhours here—?’‘Oh, but that’s different,’ protested Mrs. Gould, almostshocked. The allusion was not to the point. Don Jose was adear good man, who talked very well, and was enthusiasticabout the greatness of the San Tome mine. ‘How can youcompare them, Charles?’ she exclaimed, reproachfully. ‘Hehas suffered—and yet he hopes.’The working competence of men—which she never questioned—wasvery surprising to Mrs. Gould, because uponso many obvious issues they showed themselves strangelymuddle-headed.Charles Gould, with a careworn calmness which securedfor him at once his wife’s anxious sympathy, assured herthat he was not comparing. He was an American himself,after all, and perhaps he could understand both kinds ofeloquence—‘if it were worth while to try,’ he added, grimly.But he had breathed the air of England longer than anyof his people had done for three generations, and really hebegged to be excused. His poor father could be eloquent,too. And he asked his wife whether she remembered a passagein one of his father’s last letters where Mr. Gould hadexpressed the conviction that ‘God looked wrathfully atthese countries, or else He would let some ray of hope fallthrough a rift in the appalling darkness of intrigue, blood-