登陆注册
5215600000160

第160章

Sulaco outstripped Nostromo's prudence, growing rich swiftly on the hidden treasures of the earth, hovered over by the anxious spirits of good and evil, torn out by the labouring hands of the people. It was like a second youth, like a new life, full of promise, of unrest, of toil, scattering lavishly its wealth to the four corners of an excited world. Material changes swept along in the train of material interests. And other changes more subtle, outwardly unmarked, affected the minds and hearts of the workers.

Captain Mitchell had gone home to live on his savings invested in the San Tome mine; and Dr Monygham had grown older, with his head steel-grey and the unchanged expression of his face, living on the inexhaustible treasure of his devotion drawn upon in the secret of his heart like a store of unlawful wealth.

The Inspector-General of State Hospitals (whose maintenance is a charge upon the Gould Concession), Official Adviser on Sanitation to the Municipality, Chief Medical Officer of the San Tome Consolidated Mines (whose territory, containing gold, silver, copper, lead, cobalt, extends for miles along the foothills of the Cordillera), had felt poverty-stricken, miserable, and starved during the prolonged, second visit the Goulds paid to Europe and the United States of America. Intimate of the casa , proved friend, a bachelor without ties and without establishment (except of the professional 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. Company's splendid fleet), the doctor hobbled about more vivaciously, snapped more sardonically 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 intoxication; 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 silent. And in the patio the doctor, in a more natural manner, said:

`I'll leave you now to yourselves. I'll call tomorrow 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 pitying tenderness.

`Don't expect to find me at home,' Charles Gould warned him. `I'll be off early to the mine.'

After lunch, Dona Emilia and the Senor Doctor came slowly through the inner gateway of the patio. The large gardens of the Casa Gould, surrounded by high walls, and the red-tile slopes of neighbouring roofs, lay open before them, with masses of shade under the trees and level surfaces of sunlight upon the lawns. A triple row of old orange trees surrounded the whole. Barefooted, brown gardeners, in snowy white shirts and wide calzoneras , dotted the grounds, squatting over flowerbeds, passing between the trees, dragging slender india-rubber tubes across the gravel of the paths; and the fine jets of water crossed each other in graceful curves, sparkling in the sunshine with a slight pattering noise upon the bushes, and an effect of showered diamonds upon the grass.

Dona Emilia, holding up the train of a clear dress, walked by the side of Dr Monygham, in a longish black coat and severe black bow on an immaculate shirt-front. Under a shady clump of trees, where stood scattered little tables and wicker easy-chairs, Mrs Gould sat down in a low and ample seat.

`Don't go yet,' she said to Dr Monygham, who was unable to tear himself away from the spot. His chin nestling within the points of his collar, he devoured her stealthily with his eyes, which, luckily, were round and hard like clouded marbles, and incapable of disclosing his sentiments.

His pitying emotion at the marks of time upon the face of that woman, the air of frailty and weary fatigue that had settled upon the eyes and temples of the `Never-tired Senora' (as Don Pepe years ago used to call her with admiration), touched him almost to tears. `Don't go yet. Today is all my own,' Mrs Gould urged, gently. `We are not back yet officially. No one will come. It's only tomorrow that the windows of the Casa Gould are to be lit up for a reception.'

The doctor dropped into a chair.

`Giving a tertulia ?' he said, with a detached air.

`A simple greeting for all the kind friends who care to come.'

`And only tomorrow?'

`Yes. Charles would be tired out after a day at the mine, and so I--It would be good to have him to myself for one evening on our return to this house I love. It has seen all my life.'

`Ah, yes!' snarled the doctor, suddenly. `Women count time from the marriage feast. Didn't you live a little before?'

`Yes; but what is there to remember? There were no cares.'

Mrs Gould sighed. And as two friends, after a long separation, will revert to the most agitated period of their lives, they began to talk of the Sulaco Revolution. It seemed strange to Mrs Gould that people who had taken part in it seemed to forget its memory and its lesson.

同类推荐
  • 环溪诗话

    环溪诗话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上洞神洞渊神咒治病口章

    太上洞神洞渊神咒治病口章

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 内业

    内业

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 益部方物略记

    益部方物略记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 公孙龙子注

    公孙龙子注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 忠志

    忠志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 灵宝天尊说洪恩灵济真君妙经

    灵宝天尊说洪恩灵济真君妙经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 琰凝记

    琰凝记

    人族与魔族的双血脉之子被父亲封印后,变得资质平庸。在通过重重困难之后,终于开启人族与魔族的最高体质,从此万千天骄在他跟前皆是尘土。
  • 虹藏不见

    虹藏不见

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 低调做人的哲学

    低调做人的哲学

    低调做人不仅是一种境界,一种风范,更是一种哲学。一个人不管取得了多大的成功,不管名有多显、位有多高、财有多丰,在这个纷繁芜杂的社会中都会或多或少地受到“低调”这一哲学思想的启示。清代著名商人胡雪岩就曾这样告诫他的儿子:“树大招风,低调做人。”可见,低调做人不单是普通人的处世原则,更是成功者的做人训条。古人亦有云:“地低成海,人低成王。”生活需要低调,为人处世更不可不“低调”,低调代表着成熟和理性。低调的人,往往是人群中的不凡之人,也是最后的强者。唯有低调的人才能够在现如今的世态纷扰之中坚持淡定从容的志趣,以平和乐观的心态来面对风云莫测的人生。
  • 佛说一切如来安像三昧仪轨经

    佛说一切如来安像三昧仪轨经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 新时代大学生思想政治教育创新发展研究

    新时代大学生思想政治教育创新发展研究

    大学生是十分宝贵的人才资源,是民族的希望,是祖国的未来。目前,我国在校大学生包括本科生、专科生和研究生约有2000万。加强和改进大学生思想政治教育,提高他们的思想政治素质,把他们培养成中国特色社会主义事业的建设者和接班人,对于全面实施科教兴国和人才强国战略,确保我国在激烈的国际竞争中始终立于不败之地,确保实现全面建设小康社会、加快推进社会主义现代化的宏伟目标,确保中国特色社会主义事业兴旺发达、后继有人,具有重大而深远的战略意义。
  • 内部审计

    内部审计

    《内部审计:公司免疫系统,提升企业价值》适合企业管理人员、内部审计人员,以及相关研究者参考阅读。
  • 家庭万宝全书(中国民间文化丛书)

    家庭万宝全书(中国民间文化丛书)

    本书主要介绍了以下几方面家庭生活窍门:购衣穿着、洗涤熨烫、服饰收藏、食品选购、食品加工、食品贮藏、美食烹调、饮食保健、厨房用具、购房居家、居室清洁、家电购买、家电使用、用品维修等。
  • 一花一世界:跟季羡林品味生活禅

    一花一世界:跟季羡林品味生活禅

    一本集中体现季羡林先生天人和谐思想的作品。 书中的万事万物都被季羡林先生赋予了生命的内涵,老妇人、小男孩儿,一枝花,一条老狗,一场雨......季老以朴素的笔触描写对天地万物的情感,一生经历的人、事、物、景,在季老笔下是鲜活感人的,集中表达了季羡林先生对天地万物那种"民胞物与"的大爱。这位可敬可爱的老人不只是在诉说着他的情感,更想向世人传达一种力量,跟随季老感受生命、体悟人生,收获内心安宁平静的力量。