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

nor Administrador appear by contrast twice as sunbaked,more flaming red, a hundred times more intensely and silentlyalive. Don Jose Avellanos touched elbows with theother foreign diplomat, a dark man with a quiet, watchful,self-confident demeanour, and a touch of reserve. All etiquettebeing laid aside on the occasion, General Monterowas the only one there in full uniform, so stiff with embroideriesin front that his broad chest seemed protected by acuirass of gold. Sir John at the beginning had got away fromhigh places for the sake of sitting near Mrs. Gould.The great financier was trying to express to her his gratefulsense of her hospitality and of his obligation to herhusband’s ‘enormous influence in this part of the country,’when she interrupted him by a low ‘Hush!’ The Presidentwas going to make an informal pronouncement.The Excellentissimo was on his legs. He said only a fewwords, evidently deeply felt, and meant perhaps mostlyfor Avellanos—his old friend—as to the necessity of unremittingeffort to secure the lasting welfare of the countryemerging after this last struggle, he hoped, into a period ofpeace and material prosperity.Mrs. Gould, listening to the mellow, slightly mournfulvoice, looking at this rotund, dark, spectacled face, at theshort body, obese to the point of infirmity, thought that thisman of delicate and melancholy mind, physically almost acripple, coming out of his retirement into a dangerous strifeat the call of his fellows, had the right to speak with the authorityof his self-sacrifice. And yet she was made uneasy.He was more pathetic than promising, this first civilian