Page 563 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

without ties and without establishment (except of the pro-
fessional sort), he had been asked to take up his quarters
in the Gould house. In the eleven months of their absence
the familiar rooms, recalling at every glance the woman to
whom he had given all his loyalty, had grown intolerable. As
the day approached for the arrival of the mail boat Hermes
(the latest addition to the O. S. N. Co.’s splendid fleet), the
doctor hobbled about more vivaciously, snapped more sar-
donically at simple and gentle out of sheer nervousness.
He packed up his modest trunk with speed, with fury,
with enthusiasm, and saw it carried out past the old porter
at the gate of the Casa Gould with delight, with intoxica-
tion; then, as the hour approached, sitting alone in the great
landau behind the white mules, a little sideways, his drawn-
in face positively venomous with the effort of self-control,
and holding a pair of new gloves in his left hand, he drove
to the harbour.
His heart dilated within him so, when he saw the Goulds
on the deck of the Hermes, that his greetings were reduced
to a casual mutter. Driving back to town, all three were si-
lent. And in the patio the doctor, in a more natural manner,
said—
‘I’ll leave you now to yourselves. I’ll call to-morrow if I
may?’
‘Come to lunch, dear Dr. Monygham, and come early,’
said Mrs. Gould, in her travelling dress and her veil down,
turning to look at him at the foot of the stairs; while at the
top of the flight the Madonna, in blue robes and the Child
on her arm, seemed to welcome her with an aspect of pity-

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard