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

the ground that a man with such a valuable concession inhis pocket could not refuse his financial assistance to theGovernment of the Republic. The last of his fortune waspassing away from him against worthless receipts, he wrote,in a rage, whilst he was being pointed out as an individualwho had known how to secure enormous advantages fromthe necessities of his country. And the young man in Europegrew more and more interested in that thing whichcould provoke such a tumult of words and passion.He thought of it every day; but he thought of it withoutbitterness. It might have been an unfortunate affair for hispoor dad, and the whole story threw a queer light upon thesocial and political life of Costaguana. The view he took ofit was sympathetic to his father, yet calm and reflective. Hispersonal feelings had not been outraged, and it is difficultto resent with proper and durable indignation the physicalor mental anguish of another organism, even if that otherorganism is one’s own father. By the time he was twentyCharles Gould had, in his turn, fallen under the spell ofthe San Tome mine. But it was another form of enchantment,more suitable to his youth, into whose magic formulathere entered hope, vigour, and self-confidence, instead ofweary indignation and despair. Left after he was twenty tohis own guidance (except for the severe injunction not toreturn to Costaguana), he had pursued his studies in Belgiumand France with the idea of qualifying for a miningengineer. But this scientific aspect of his labours remainedvague and imperfect in his mind. Mines had acquired forhim a dramatic interest. He studied their peculiarities from