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

south next week—let us go. That Moraga is a fool! A manlike Montero is bribed. It’s the practice of the country. It’stradition —it’s politics. Read ‘Fifty Years of Misrule.’’‘Leave poor papa alone, Don Martin. He believes—‘‘I have the greatest tenderness for your father,’ he began,hurriedly. ‘But I love you, Antonia! And Moraga has miserablymismanaged this business. Perhaps your father did,too; I don’t know. Montero was bribeable. Why, I supposehe only wanted his share of this famous loan for nationaldevelopment. Why didn’t the stupid Sta. Marta people givehim a mission to Europe, or something? He would have takenfive years’ salary in advance, and gone on loafing in Paris,this stupid, ferocious Indio!’‘The man,’ she said, thoughtfully, and very calm beforethis outburst, ‘was intoxicated with vanity. We had all theinformation, not from Moraga only; from others, too. Therewas his brother intriguing, too.’‘Oh, yes!’ he said. ‘Of course you know. You know everything.You read all the correspondence, you write allthe papers—all those State papers that are inspired here, inthis room, in blind deference to a theory of political purity.Hadn’t you Charles Gould before your eyes? Rey de Sulaco!He and his mine are the practical demonstration of whatcould have been done. Do you think he succeeded by hisfidelity to a theory of virtue? And all those railway people,with their honest work! Of course, their work is honest! Butwhat if you cannot work honestly till the thieves are satisfied?Could he not, a gentleman, have told this Sir Johnwhat’s-his-name that Montero had to be bought off—he