Page 71 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

He affirmed and reaffirmed this resolution in the drawing-
rooms of Sta. Marta, in a soft and implacable voice, and
with such malicious glances that Mr. Gould’s best friends
advised him earnestly to attempt no bribery to get the mat-
ter dropped. It would have been useless. Indeed, it would not
have been a very safe proceeding. Such was also the opinion
of a stout, loud-voiced lady of French extraction, the daugh-
ter, she said, of an officer of high rank (officier superieur de
l’armee), who was accommodated with lodgings within the
walls of a secularized convent next door to the Ministry of
Finance. That florid person, when approached on behalf of
Mr. Gould in a proper manner, and with a suitable pres-
ent, shook her head despondently. She was good-natured,
and her despondency was genuine. She imagined she could
not take money in consideration of something she could
not accomplish. The friend of Mr. Gould, charged with the
delicate mission, used to say afterwards that she was the
only honest person closely or remotely connected with the
Government he had ever met. ‘No go,’ she had said with a
cavalier, husky intonation which was natural to her, and us-
ing turns of expression more suitable to a child of parents
unknown than to the orphaned daughter of a general offi-
cer. ‘No; it’s no go. Pas moyen, mon garcon. C’est dommage,
tout de meme. Ah! zut! Je ne vole pas mon monde. Je ne suis
pas ministre—moi! Vous pouvez emporter votre petit sac.’
For a moment, biting her carmine lip, she deplored in-
wardly the tyranny of the rigid principles governing the
sale of her influence in high places. Then, significantly, and
with a touch of impatience, ‘Allez,’ she added, ‘et dites bien

0 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard