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

‘Your dead mother,’ he said, very low.‘Ah! … Poor mother! She has always … She is a saint inheaven now, and I cannot give you up to her. No, Giovanni.Only to God alone. You were mad—but it is done. Oh! whathave you done? Giovanni, my beloved, my life, my master,do not leave me here in this grave of clouds. You cannotleave me now. You must take me away—at once—this instant—inthe little boat. Giovanni, carry me off to-night,from my fear of Linda’s eyes, before I have to look at heragain.’She nestled close to him. The slave of the San Tome silverfelt the weight as of chains upon his limbs, a pressure as of acold hand upon his lips. He struggled against the spell.‘I cannot,’ he said. ‘Not yet. There is something thatstands between us two and the freedom of the world.’She pressed her form closer to his side with a subtle andnaive instinct of seduction.‘You rave, Giovanni—my lover!’ she whispered, engagingly.‘What can there be? Carry me off—in thy very hands—toDona Emilia—away from here. I am not very heavy.’It seemed as though she expected him to lift her up atonce in his two palms. She had lost the notion of all impossibility.Anything could happen on this night of wonder. Ashe made no movement, she almost cried aloud—‘I tell you I am afraid of Linda!’ And still he did not move.She became quiet and wily. ‘What can there be?’ she asked,coaxingly.He felt her warm, breathing, alive, quivering in the hollowof his arm. In the exulting consciousness of his strength,