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

were his divinities; but he tolerated ‘superstition’ in women,preserving in these matters a lofty and silent attitude.His two girls, the eldest fourteen, and the other two yearsyounger, crouched on the sanded floor, on each side of theSignora Teresa, with their heads on their mother’s lap, bothscared, but each in her own way, the dark-haired Linda indignantand angry, the fair Giselle, the younger, bewilderedand resigned. The Patrona removed her arms, which embracedher daughters, for a moment to cross herself andwring her hands hurriedly. She moaned a little louder.‘Oh! Gian’ Battista, why art thou not here? Oh! why artthou not here?’She was not then invoking the saint himself, but callingupon Nostromo, whose patron he was. And Giorgio,motionless on the chair by her side, would be provoked bythese reproachful and distracted appeals.‘Peace, woman! Where’s the sense of it? There’s his duty,’he murmured in the dark; and she would retort, panting—‘Eh! I have no patience. Duty! What of the woman whohas been like a mother to him? I bent my knee to him thismorning; don’t you go out, Gian’ Battista—stop in the house,Battistino—look at those two little innocent children!’Mrs. Viola was an Italian, too, a native of Spezzia, andthough considerably younger than her husband, alreadymiddle-aged. She had a handsome face, whose complexionhad turned yellow because the climate of Sulaco did notsuit her at all. Her voice was a rich contralto. When, withher arms folded tight under her ample bosom, she scoldedthe squat, thick-legged China girls handling linen, pluck-