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

as a boy on one of these feluccas by a short-necked, shavenGenoese, with a deliberate and distrustful manner, who (hefirmly believed) had cheated him out of his orphan’s inheritance.But it is mercifully decreed that the evils of the pastshould appear but faintly in retrospect. Under the sense ofloneliness, abandonment, and failure, the idea of return tothese things appeared tolerable. But, what? Return? Withbare feet and head, with one check shirt and a pair of cottoncalzoneros for all worldly possessions?The renowned Capataz, his elbows on his knees and afist dug into each cheek, laughed with self-derision, as hehad spat with disgust, straight out before him into the night.The confused and intimate impressions of universal dissolutionwhich beset a subjective nature at any strong check toits ruling passion had a bitterness approaching that of deathitself. He was simple. He was as ready to become the prey ofany belief, superstition, or desire as a child.The facts of his situation he could appreciate like a manwith a distinct experience of the country. He saw them clearly.He was as if sobered after a long bout of intoxication. Hisfidelity had been taken advantage of. He had persuaded thebody of Cargadores to side with the Blancos against the restof the people; he had had interviews with Don Jose; he hadbeen made use of by Father Corbelan for negotiating withHernandez; it was known that Don Martin Decoud had admittedhim to a sort of intimacy, so that he had been freeof the offices of the Porvenir. All these things had flatteredhim in the usual way. What did he care about their politics?Nothing at all. And at the end of it all—Nostromo here