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

of these two. And moving about the lantern, filled with twilightand the sheen of the moon, with careful movementsshe lighted the lamp. Then her arms fell along her body.‘And with our mother looking on,’ she murmured. ‘Myown sister—the Chica!’The whole refracting apparatus, with its brass fittings andrings of prisms, glittered and sparkled like a domeshapedshrine of diamonds, containing not a lamp, but some sacredflame, dominating the sea. And Linda, the keeper, in black,with a pale face, drooped low in a wooden chair, alone withher jealousy, far above the shames and passions of the earth.A strange, dragging pain as if somebody were pulling herabout brutally by her dark hair with bronze glints, madeher put her hands up to her temples. They would meet. Theywould meet. And she knew where, too. At the window. Thesweat of torture fell in drops on her cheeks, while the moonlightin the offing closed as if with a colossal bar of silver theentrance of the Placid Gulf—the sombre cavern of cloudsand stillness in the surf-fretted seaboard.Linda Viola stood up suddenly with a finger on her lip.He loved neither her nor her sister. The whole thing seemedso objectless as to frighten her, and also give her some hope.Why did he not carry her off? What prevented him? He wasincomprehensible. What were they waiting for? For whatend were these two lying and deceiving? Not for the ends oftheir love. There was no such thing. The hope of regaininghim for herself made her break her vow of not leaving thetower that night. She must talk at once to her father, whowas wise, and would understand. She ran down the spiral