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

The people returning from the harbour filled the pavements;the shuffle of sandals and a low murmur of voicesascended to the window. Now and then a coach rolledslowly along the disjointed roadway of the Calle de la Constitucion.There were not many private carriages in Sulaco;at the most crowded hour on the Alameda they could becounted with one glance of the eye. The great family arksswayed on high leathern springs, full of pretty powderedfaces in which the eyes looked intensely alive and black.And first Don Juste Lopez, the President of the ProvincialAssembly, passed with his three lovely daughters, solemnin a black frock-coat and stiff white tie, as when directinga debate from a high tribune. Though they all raised theireyes, Antonia did not make the usual greeting gesture of afluttered hand, and they affected not to see the two youngpeople, Costaguaneros with European manners, whose eccentricitieswere discussed behind the barred windows ofthe first families in Sulaco. And then the widowed SenoraGavilaso de Valdes rolled by, handsome and dignified, in agreat machine in which she used to travel to and from hercountry house, surrounded by an armed retinue in leathersuits and big sombreros, with carbines at the bows of theirsaddles. She was a woman of most distinguished family,proud, rich, and kind-hearted. Her second son, Jaime, hadjust gone off on the Staff of Barrios. The eldest, a worthlessfellow of a moody disposition, filled Sulaco with the noiseof his dissipations, and gambled heavily at the club. The twoyoungest boys, with yellow Ribierist cockades in their caps,sat on the front seat. She, too, affected not to see the Senor