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

Ribierists, of whom we hear so much just now, are reallytrying in their own comical way to make the country habitable,and even to pay some of its debts. My friends, youhad better write up Senor Ribiera all you can in kindness toyour own bondholders. Really, if what I am told in my lettersis true, there is some chance for them at last.’And he would explain with railing verve what Don VincenteRibiera stood for—a mournful little man oppressedby his own good intentions, the significance of battles won,who Montero was (un grotesque vaniteux et feroce), and themanner of the new loan connected with railway development,and the colonization of vast tracts of land in one greatfinancial scheme.And his French friends would remark that evidentlythis little fellow Decoud connaissait la question a fond. Animportant Parisian review asked him for an article on thesituation. It was composed in a serious tone and in a spiritof levity. Afterwards he asked one of his intimates—‘Have you read my thing about the regeneration of Costaguana—unebonne blague, hein?’He imagined himself Parisian to the tips of his fingers.But far from being that he was in danger of remaining asort of nondescript dilettante all his life. He had pushed thehabit of universal raillery to a point where it blinded him tothe genuine impulses of his own nature. To be suddenly selectedfor the executive member of the patriotic small-armscommittee of Sulaco seemed to him the height of the unexpected,one of those fantastic moves of which only his ‘dearcountrymen’ were capable.