Page 217 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

What is a conviction? A particular view of our personal ad-
vantage either practical or emotional. No one is a patriot
for nothing. The word serves us well. But I am clear-sighted,
and I shall not use that word to you, Antonia! I have no pa-
triotic illusions. I have only the supreme illusion of a lover.’
He paused, then muttered almost inaudibly, ‘That can
lead one very far, though.’
Behind their backs the political tide that once in ev-
ery twenty-four hours set with a strong flood through the
Gould drawing-room could be heard, rising higher in a
hum of voices. Men had been dropping in singly, or in twos
and threes: the higher officials of the province, engineers
of the railway, sunburnt and in tweeds, with the frosted
head of their chief smiling with slow, humorous indulgence
amongst the young eager faces. Scarfe, the lover of fandan-
gos, had already slipped out in search of some dance, no
matter where, on the outskirts of the town. Don Juste Lopez,
after taking his daughters home, had entered solemnly, in a
black creased coat buttoned up under his spreading brown
beard. The few members of the Provincial Assembly pres-
ent clustered at once around their President to discuss the
news of the war and the last proclamation of the rebel Mon-
tero, the miserable Montero, calling in the name of ‘a justly
incensed democracy’ upon all the Provincial Assemblies
of the Republic to suspend their sittings till his sword had
made peace and the will of the people could be consulted. It
was practically an invitation to dissolve: an unheard-of au-
dacity of that evil madman.
The indignation ran high in the knot of deputies behind

1 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard