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

out-of-the-way place Sulaco is!—and for a harbour, too! Astonishing!’‘Ah, but we are very proud of it. It used to be historicallyimportant. The highest ecclesiastical court for two viceroyalties,sat here in the olden time,’ she instructed him withanimation.‘I am impressed. I didn’t mean to be disparaging. Youseem very patriotic.’‘The place is lovable, if only by its situation. Perhaps youdon’t know what an old resident I am.’‘How old, I wonder,’ he murmured, looking at her witha slight smile. Mrs. Gould’s appearance was made youthfulby the mobile intelligence of her face. ‘We can’t giveyou your ecclesiastical court back again; but you shall havemore steamers, a railway, a telegraph-cable—a future inthe great world which is worth infinitely more than anyamount of ecclesiastical past. You shall be brought in touchwith something greater than two viceroyalties. But I hadno notion that a place on a sea-coast could remain so isolatedfrom the world. If it had been a thousand miles inlandnow—most remarkable! Has anything ever happened herefor a hundred years before to-day?’While he talked in a slow, humorous tone, she kept herlittle smile. Agreeing ironically, she assured him that certainlynot—nothing ever happened in Sulaco. Even therevolutions, of which there had been two in her time, hadrespected the repose of the place. Their course ran in themore populous southern parts of the Republic, and the greatvalley of Sta. Marta, which was like one great battlefield of