Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
the miserable subjection of the dying man, appalled, wishing to hear no more of the silver.
"No, Capataz," she said, "No one misses it now. Let it be lost for ever."
After hearing these words, Nostromo closed his eyes, uttered no word, made no movement. Outside the door of the sick-room Dr. Monygham, excited to the highest pitch, his eyes shining with eagerness, came up to the two women.
"Now, Mrs. Gould," he said, almost brutally in his impatience, "tell me, was I right? There is a mystery. You have got the word of it, have you not? He told you — "
"He told me nothing," said Mrs. Gould, steadily.
The light of his temperamental enmity to Nostromo went out of Dr. Monygham's eyes. He stepped back submissively. He did not believe Mrs. Gould. But her word was law. He accepted her denial like an inexplicable fatality affirming the victory of Nostromo's genius over his own. Even before that woman, whom he loved with secret devotion, he had been defeated by the magnificent Capataz de Cargadores, the man who had lived his own life on the assumption of unbroken fidelity, rectitude, and courage!
"Pray send at once somebody for my carriage," spoke Mrs. Gould from within her hood. Then, turning to Giselle Viola, "Come nearer me, child; come closer. We will wait here."
Giselle Viola, heartbroken and childlike, her face veiled in her falling hair, crept up to her side, Mrs. Gould slipped her hand through the arm of the unworthy daughter of old Viola, the immaculate repub-
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