Page 585 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

old block, true daughter of the austere republican, but with
Teresa’s voice, inspired him with a deep-seated mistrust.
Moreover, the poor girl could not conceal her love for Gian’
Battista. He could see it would be violent, exacting, suspi-
cious, uncompromising—like her soul. Giselle, by her fair
but warm beauty, by the surface placidity of her nature
holding a promise of submissiveness, by the charm of her
girlish mysteriousness, excited his passion and allayed his
fears as to the future.
His absences from Sulaco were long. On returning from
the longest of them, he made out lighters loaded with blocks
of stone lying under the cliff of the Great Isabel; cranes and
scaffolding above; workmen’s figures moving about, and a
small lighthouse already rising from its foundations on the
edge of the cliff.
At this unexpected, undreamt-of, startling sight, he
thought himself lost irretrievably. What could save him
from detection now? Nothing! He was struck with amazed
dread at this turn of chance, that would kindle a far-reach-
ing light upon the only secret spot of his life; that life whose
very essence, value, reality, consisted in its reflection from
the admiring eyes of men. All of it but that thing which was
beyond common comprehension; which stood between
him and the power that hears and gives effect to the evil
intention of curses. It was dark. Not every man had such a
darkness. And they were going to put a light there. A light!
He saw it shining upon disgrace, poverty, contempt. Some-
body was sure to…. Perhaps somebody had already….
The incomparable Nostromo, the Capataz, the respect-

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard