Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
trembling in every limb, to loan, punting, with staring eyes and parted lips, against the wall of the structure, where the harps and guitars played on with mad speed in an incessant roll of thunder. Hundreds of hands clapped in there; voices shrieked, and then all at once would sink low, chanting in unison the refrain of a love-song, with a dying fall. A red flower, flung with a good aim from somewhere in the crowd, struck the resplendent capataz on the cheek.
He caught it as it fell, neatly, but for some time did not turn his head. When at last he condescended to look round, the throng near him had parted to make way for a pretty Morenita, her hair held up by a small golden comb, who was walking towards him in the open space.
Her arms and neck emerged plump and bare from a snowy chemisette; the blue woollen skirt, with all the fulness gathered in front, scanty on the hips and tight across the back, disclosed the provoking action of her walk. She came straight on and laid her hand on the mare's neck with a timid, coquettish look upward out of the corner of her eyes.
"Querido," she murmured, caressingly, "why do you pretend not to see me when I pass?"
"Because I don't love thee any more," said Nostromo, deliberately, after a moment of reflective silence.
The hand on the mare's neck trembled suddenly. She dropped her head before all the eyes in the wide circle formed round the generous, the terrible, the inconstant capataz de cargadores, and his Morenita.
Nostromo, looking down, saw tears beginning to fall down her face.
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