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

countenance by their presence the enterprise in which thecapital of their countries was engaged. The only lady of thatcompany was Mrs. Gould, the wife of Don Carlos, the administratorof the San Tome silver mine. The ladies of Sulacowere not advanced enough to take part in the public life tothat extent. They had come out strongly at the great ball atthe Intendencia the evening before, but Mrs. Gould alonehad appeared, a bright spot in the group of black coats behindthe President-Dictator, on the crimson cloth-coveredstage erected under a shady tree on the shore of the harbour,where the ceremony of turning the first sod had taken place.She had come off in the cargo lighter, full of notabilities,sitting under the flutter of gay flags, in the place of honourby the side of Captain Mitchell, who steered, and her cleardress gave the only truly festive note to the sombre gatheringin the long, gorgeous saloon of the Juno.The head of the chairman of the railway board (from London),handsome and pale in a silvery mist of white hair andclipped beard, hovered near her shoulder attentive, smiling,and fatigued. The journey from London to Sta. Martain mail boats and the special carriages of the Sta. Martacoast-line (the only railway so far) had been tolerable—evenpleasant—quite tolerable. But the trip over the mountainsto Sulaco was another sort of experience, in an old diligenciaover impassable roads skirting awful precipices.‘We have been upset twice in one day on the brink ofvery deep ravines,’ he was telling Mrs. Gould in an undertone.‘And when we arrived here at last I don’t know whatwe should have done without your hospitality. What an