Page 144 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

which I, having been in my time accredited to the Court of
St. James, am able to speak with some knowledge.’
Only then Sir John thought fit to respond, which he did
gracefully in bad French, punctuated by bursts of applause
and the ‘Hear! Hears!’ of Captain Mitchell, who was able to
understand a word now and then. Directly he had done, the
financier of railways turned to Mrs. Gould—
‘You were good enough to say that you intended to ask
me for something,’ he reminded her, gallantly. ‘What is it?
Be assured that any request from you would be considered
in the light of a favour to myself.’
She thanked him by a gracious smile. Everybody was ris-
ing from the table.
‘Let us go on deck,’ she proposed, ‘where I’ll be able to
point out to you the very object of my request.’
An enormous national flag of Costaguana, diagonal red
and yellow, with two green palm trees in the middle, float-
ed lazily at the mainmast head of the Juno. A multitude of
fireworks being let off in their thousands at the water’s edge
in honour of the President kept up a mysterious crepitating
noise half round the harbour. Now and then a lot of rockets,
swishing upwards invisibly, detonated overhead with only
a puff of smoke in the bright sky. Crowds of people could
be seen between the town gate and the harbour, under the
bunches of multicoloured flags fluttering on tall poles. Faint
bursts of military music would be heard suddenly, and the
remote sound of shouting. A knot of ragged negroes at the
end of the wharf kept on loading and firing a small iron
cannon time after time. A greyish haze of dust hung thin

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