Page 94 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

there was an implication of calm and implacable resolu-
tion in Charles Gould’s very voice. Men of affairs venture
sometimes on acts that the common judgment of the world
would pronounce absurd; they make their decisions on ap-
parently impulsive and human grounds. ‘Very well,’ had
said the considerable personage to whom Charles Gould
on his way out through San Francisco had lucidly exposed
his point of view. ‘Let us suppose that the mining affairs of
Sulaco are taken in hand. There would then be in it: first,
the house of Holroyd, which is all right; then, Mr. Charles
Gould, a citizen of Costaguana, who is also all right; and,
lastly, the Government of the Republic. So far this resem-
bles the first start of the Atacama nitrate fields, where there
was a financing house, a gentleman of the name of Edwards,
and—a Government; or, rather, two Governments—two
South American Governments. And you know what came
of it. War came of it; devastating and prolonged war came
of it, Mr. Gould. However, here we possess the advantage
of having only one South American Government hanging
around for plunder out of the deal. It is an advantage; but
then there are degrees of badness, and that Government is
the Costaguana Government.’
Thus spoke the considerable personage, the millionaire
endower of churches on a scale befitting the greatness of his
native land—the same to whom the doctors used the lan-
guage of horrid and veiled menaces. He was a big-limbed,
deliberate man, whose quiet burliness lent to an ample silk-
faced frock-coat a superfine dignity. His hair was iron grey,
his eyebrows were still black, and his massive profile was