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

there was to say a long time ago. There is nothing to say now.There were things to be done. We have done them; we havegone on doing them. There is no going back now. I don’tsuppose that, even from the first, there was really any possibleway back. And, what’s more, we can’t even afford tostand still.’‘Ah, if one only knew how far you mean to go,’ said hiswife. inwardly trembling, but in an almost playful tone.‘Any distance, any length, of course,’ was the answer, in amatter-of-fact tone, which caused Mrs. Gould to make anothereffort to repress a shudder.She stood up, smiling graciously, and her little figureseemed to be diminished still more by the heavy mass ofher hair and the long train of her gown.‘But always to success,’ she said, persuasively.Charles Gould, enveloping her in the steely blue glanceof his attentive eyes, answered without hesitation—‘Oh, there is no alternative.’He put an immense assurance into his tone. As to thewords, this was all that his conscience would allow him tosay.Mrs. Gould’s smile remained a shade too long upon herlips. She murmured—‘I will leave you; I’ve a slight headache. The heat, the dust,were indeed—I suppose you are going back to the mine beforethe morning?’‘At midnight,’ said Charles Gould. ‘We are bringing downthe silver to-morrow. Then I shall take three whole days offin town with you.’