Page 578 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

an old negro, who had been sitting behind a pile of cases,
fishing from the wharf. He wound up his lines and slunk
away at once. But he must have heard something, and must
have talked, too, because some of the old Garibaldino’s rail-
way friends, I suppose, warned him against Ramirez. At
any rate, the father has been warned. But Ramirez has dis-
appeared from the town.’
‘I feel I have a duty towards these girls,’ said Mrs. Gould,
uneasily. ‘Is Nostromo in Sulaco now?’
‘He is, since last Sunday.’
‘He ought to be spoken to—at once.’
‘Who will dare speak to him? Even the love-mad Ramirez
runs away from the mere shadow of Captain Fidanza.’
‘I can. I will,’ Mrs. Gould declared. ‘A word will be enough
for a man like Nostromo.’
The doctor smiled sourly.
‘He must end this situation which lends itself to——I
can’t believe it of that child,’ pursued Mrs. Gould.
‘He’s very attractive,’ muttered the doctor, gloomily.
‘He’ll see it, I am sure. He must put an end to all this by
marrying Linda at once,’ pronounced the first lady of Su-
laco with immense decision.
Through the garden gate emerged Basilio, grown fat and
sleek, with an elderly hairless face, wrinkles at the corners
of his eyes, and his jet-black, coarse hair plastered down
smoothly. Stooping carefully behind an ornamental clump
of bushes, he put down with precaution a small child he had
been carrying on his shoulder—his own and Leonarda’s last
born. The pouting, spoiled Camerista and the head mozo of