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

things for this harbour—this active usher-in of the materialimplements for our progress. You have heard CaptainMitchell confess over and over again that till he got thisman he could never tell how long it would take to unloada ship. That is bad for progress. You have seen him pass byafter his labours on his famous horse to dazzle the girls insome ballroom with an earthen floor. He is a fortunate fellow!His work is an exercise of personal powers; his leisureis spent in receiving the marks of extraordinary adulation.And he likes it, too. Can anybody be more fortunate? To befeared and admired is—‘‘And are these your highest aspirations, Don Martin?’ interruptedAntonia.‘I was speaking of a man of that sort,’ said Decoud, curtly.‘The heroes of the world have been feared and admired.What more could he want?’Decoud had often felt his familiar habit of ironic thoughtfall shattered against Antonia’s gravity. She irritated him asif she, too, had suffered from that inexplicable feminine obtusenesswhich stands so often between a man and a womanof the more ordinary sort. But he overcame his vexationat once. He was very far from thinking Antonia ordinary,whatever verdict his scepticism might have pronouncedupon himself. With a touch of penetrating tenderness in hisvoice he assured her that his only aspiration was to a felicityso high that it seemed almost unrealizable on this earth.She coloured invisibly, with a warmth against which thebreeze from the sierra seemed to have lost its cooling powerin the sudden melting of the snows. His whisper could not