Page 534 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

priest, everlastingly worrying the Government about the
old Church lands and convents. I believe they think a lot
of him in Rome. Now let us go to the Amarilla Club, just
across the Plaza, to get some lunch.’
Directly outside the cathedral on the very top of the no-
ble flight of steps, his voice rose pompously, his arm found
again its sweeping gesture.
‘Porvenir, over there on that first floor, above those
French plate-glass shop-fronts; our biggest daily. Conser-
vative, or, rather, I should say, Parliamentary. We have the
Parliamentary party here of which the actual Chief of the
State, Don Juste Lopez, is the head; a very sagacious man, I
think. A first-rate intellect, sir. The Democratic party in op-
position rests mostly, I am sorry to say, on these socialistic
Italians, sir, with their secret societies, camorras, and such-
like. There are lots of Italians settled here on the railway
lands, dismissed navvies, mechanics, and so on, all along
the trunk line. There are whole villages of Italians on the
Campo. And the natives, too, are being drawn into these
ways … American bar? Yes. And over there you can see an-
other. New Yorkers mostly frequent that one——Here we
are at the Amarilla. Observe the bishop at the foot of the
stairs to the right as we go in.’
And the lunch would begin and terminate its lavish
and leisurely course at a little table in the gallery, Captain
Mitchell nodding, bowing, getting up to speak for a mo-
ment to different officials in black clothes, merchants in
jackets, officers in uniform, middle-aged caballeros from
the Campo—sallow, little, nervous men, and fat, placid,