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

lish, French, Italians, all sorts—lively young fellows mostly,who wanted to pay a compliment to an old resident, sir. Butwe’ll lunch at the Amarilla. Interest you, I fancy. Real thingof the country. Men of the first families. The President ofthe Occidental Republic himself belongs to it, sir. Fine oldbishop with a broken nose in the patio. Remarkable piece ofstatuary, I believe. Cavaliere Parrochetti—you know Parrochetti,the famous Italian sculptor—was working here fortwo years—thought very highly of our old bishop…. There!I am very much at your service now.’Proud of his experience, penetrated by the sense of historicalimportance of men, events, and buildings, he talkedpompously in jerky periods, with slight sweeps of his short,thick arm, letting nothing ‘escape the attention’ of his privilegedcaptive.‘Lot of building going on, as you observe. Before the Separationit was a plain of burnt grass smothered in cloudsof dust, with an ox-cart track to our Jetty. Nothing more.This is the Harbour Gate. Picturesque, is it not? Formerlythe town stopped short there. We enter now the Callede la Constitucion. Observe the old Spanish houses. Greatdignity. Eh? I suppose it’s just as it was in the time of theViceroys, except for the pavement. Wood blocks now. SulacoNational Bank there, with the sentry boxes each side ofthe gate. Casa Avellanos this side, with all the ground-floorwindows shuttered. A wonderful woman lives there—MissAvellanos—the beautiful Antonia. A character, sir! A historicalwoman! Opposite—Casa Gould. Noble gateway. Yes,the Goulds of the original Gould Concession, that all the