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

ing tenderness.‘Don’t expect to find me at home,’ Charles Gould warnedhim. ‘I’ll be off early to the mine.’After lunch, Dona Emilia and the senor doctor cameslowly through the inner gateway of the patio. The largegardens of the Casa Gould, surrounded by high walls, andthe red-tile slopes of neighbouring roofs, lay open beforethem, with masses of shade under the trees and level surfacesof sunlight upon the lawns. A triple row of old orangetrees surrounded the whole. Barefooted, brown gardeners,in snowy white shirts and wide calzoneras, dotted thegrounds, squatting over flowerbeds, passing between thetrees, dragging slender India-rubber tubes across the gravelof the paths; and the fine jets of water crossed each otherin graceful curves, sparkling in the sunshine with a slightpattering noise upon the bushes, and an effect of showereddiamonds upon the grass.Dona Emilia, holding up the train of a clear dress, walkedby the side of Dr. Monygham, in a longish black coat and severeblack bow on an immaculate shirtfront. Under a shadyclump of trees, where stood scattered little tables and wickereasy-chairs, Mrs. Gould sat down in a low and ample seat.‘Don’t go yet,’ she said to Dr. Monygham, who was unableto tear himself away from the spot. His chin nestling withinthe points of his collar, he devoured her stealthily with hiseyes, which, luckily, were round and hard like clouded marbles,and incapable of disclosing his sentiments. His pityingemotion at the marks of time upon the face of that woman,the air of frailty and weary fatigue that had settled upon the