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

hills, for which we are starving our love.’She ceased, seeing Linda standing silent at the corner ofthe house.Nostromo turned to his affianced wife with a greeting,and was amazed at her sunken eyes, at her hollow cheeks, atthe air of illness and anguish in her face.‘Have you been ill?’ he asked, trying to put some concerninto this question.Her black eyes blazed at him. ‘Am I thinner?’ she asked.‘Yes—perhaps—a little.’‘And older?’‘Every day counts—for all of us.’‘I shall go grey, I fear, before the ring is on my finger,’ shesaid, slowly, keeping her gaze fastened upon him.She waited for what he would say, rolling down herturned-up sleeves.‘No fear of that,’ he said, absently.She turned away as if it had been something final, andbusied herself with household cares while Nostromo talkedwith her father. Conversation with the old Garibaldino wasnot easy. Age had left his faculties unimpaired, only theyseemed to have withdrawn somewhere deep within him.His answers were slow in coming, with an effect of augustgravity. But that day he was more animated, quicker; thereseemed to be more life in the old lion. He was uneasy for theintegrity of his honour. He believed Sidoni’s warning as toRamirez’s designs upon his younger daughter. And he didnot trust her. She was flighty. He said nothing of his caresto ‘Son Gian’ Battista.’ It was a touch of senile vanity. He