Page 189 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

The women of that class especially seemed positively fas-
cinated by the long drooping nose, the peaked chin, the
heavy lower lip, the black silk eyepatch and band slanting
rakishly over the forehead. His high rank always procured
an audience of Caballeros for his sporting stories, which he
detailed very well with a simple, grave enjoyment. As to the
society of ladies, it was irksome by the restraints it imposed
without any equivalent, as far as he could see. He had not,
perhaps, spoken three times on the whole to Mrs. Gould
since he had taken up his high command; but he had ob-
served her frequently riding with the Senor Administrador,
and had pronounced that there was more sense in her little
bridle-hand than in all the female heads in Sulaco. His im-
pulse had been to be very civil on parting to a woman who
did not wobble in the saddle, and happened to be the wife
of a personality very important to a man always short of
money. He even pushed his attentions so far as to desire the
aide-de-camp at his side (a thick-set, short captain with a
Tartar physiognomy) to bring along a corporal with a file of
men in front of the carriage, lest the crowd in its backward
surges should ‘incommode the mules of the senora.’ Then,
turning to the small knot of silent Europeans looking on
within earshot, he raised his voice protectingly—
‘Senores, have no apprehension. Go on quietly mak-
ing your Ferro Carril—your railways, your telegraphs.
Your—There’s enough wealth in Costaguana to pay for ev-
erything—or else you would not be here. Ha! ha! Don’t
mind this little picardia of my friend Montero. In a little
while you shall behold his dyed moustaches through the

1 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard