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

‘What is it, Don Martin?’ asked Mrs. Gould. And thenshe added, with a slight laugh, ‘I am so nervous to-day,’ as ifto explain the eagerness of the question.‘Nothing immediately dangerous,’ said Decoud, who nowcould not conceal his agitation. ‘Pray don’t distress yourself.No, really, you must not distress yourself.’Mrs. Gould, with her candid eyes very wide open, herlips composed into a smile, was steadying herself with a littlebejewelled hand against the side of the door.‘Perhaps you don’t know how alarming you are, appearinglike this unexpectedly—‘‘I! Alarming!’ he protested, sincerely vexed and surprised.‘I assure you that I am not in the least alarmed myself. A fanis lost; well, it will be found again. But I don’t think it is here.It is a fan I am looking for. I cannot understand how Antoniacould—Well! Have you found it, amigo?’‘No, senor,’ said behind Mrs. Gould the soft voice of Basilio,the head servant of the Casa. ‘I don’t think the senoritacould have left it in this house at all.’‘Go and look for it in the patio again. Go now, my friend;look for it on the steps, under the gate; examine everyflagstone; search for it till I come down again…. That fellow’—headdressed himself in English to Mrs. Gould—‘isalways stealing up behind one’s back on his bare feet. I sethim to look for that fan directly I came in to justify my reappearance,my sudden return.’He paused and Mrs. Gould said, amiably, ‘You are alwayswelcome.’ She paused for a second, too. ‘But I am waiting tolearn the cause of your return.’