登陆注册
5215600000161

第161章

`And yet,' struck in the doctor, `we who played our part in it had our reward. Don Pepe, though superannuated, still can sit a horse. Barrios is drinking himself to death in jovial company away somewhere on his fundacion beyond the Bolson de Tonoro. And the heroic Father Roman -- I imagine the old padre blowing up systematically the San Tome mine, uttering a pious exclamation at every bang, and taking handfuls of snuff between the explosions -- the heroic Padre Roman says that he is not afraid of the harm Holroyd's missionaries can do to his flock, as long as he is alive.'

Mrs Gould shuddered a little at the allusion to the destruction that had come so near to the San Tome mine.

`Ah, but you, dear friend?'

`I did the work I was fit for.'

`You faced the most cruel dangers of all. Something more than death.'

`No, Mrs Gould! Only death -- by hanging. And I am rewarded beyond my deserts.'

Noticing Mrs Gould's gaze fixed upon him, he dropped his eyes.

`I've made my career -- as you see,' said the Inspector-General of State Hospitals, taking up lightly the lapels of his superfine black coat. The doctor's self-respect, marked inwardly by the almost complete disappearance from his dreams of Father Beron, appeared visibly in what, by contrast with former carelessness, seemed an immoderate cult of personal appearance.

Carried out within severe limits of form and colour, and in perpetual freshness, this change of apparel gave to Dr Monygham an air at the same time professional and festive; while his gait and the unchanged crabbed character of his face acquired from it a startling force of incongruity.

`Yes,' he went on. `We all had our rewards -- the engineer-in-chief, Captain Mitchell--'

`We saw him,' interrupted Mrs Gould, in her charming voice. `The poor dear man came up from the country on purpose to call on us in our hotel in London. He comported himself with great dignity, but I fancy he regrets Sulaco. He rambled feebly about "historical events" till I felt I could have a cry.'

`H'm,' grunted the doctor; `getting old, I suppose. Even Nostromo is getting older -- though he is not changed. And, speaking of that fellow, I wanted to tell you something--'.

For some time the house had been full of murmurs, of agitation. Suddenly the two gardeners, busy with rose trees at the side of the garden arch, fell upon their knees with bowed heads on the passage of antonia Avellanos, who appeared waling beside her uncle.

Invested with the red hat after a short visit to Rome, where he had been invited by the Propaganda, Father Corbelan, missionary to the wild Indians, conspirator, friend and patron of Hernandez the robber, advanced with big, slow strides, gaunt and leaning forward, with his powerful hands clasped behind his back. The first Cardinal-Archbishop of Sulaco had preserved his fanatical and morose air; the aspect of a chaplain of bandits. It was believed that his unexpected elevation to the purple was a counter-move to the Protestant invasion of Sulaco organized by the Holroyd Missionary Fund. Antonia, the beauty of her face as if a little blurred, her figure slightly fuller, advanced with her light walk and her high serenity, smiling from a distance at Mrs Gould. She had brought her uncle over to see dear Emilia, without ceremony, just for a moment before the siesta.

When all were seated again, Dr Monygham, who had come to dislike heartily everybody who approached Mrs Gould with any intimacy, kept aside, pretending to be lost in profound mediation. A louder phrase of Antonia made him lift his head.

`How can we abandon, groaning under oppression, those who have been our countrymen only a few years ago, who are our countrymen now?'

Miss Avellanos was saying. `How can we remain blind, and deaf without pity to the cruel wrongs suffered by our brothers? There is a remedy.'

`Annex the rest of Costaguana to the order and prosperity of Sulaco,'

snapped the doctor. `There is no other remedy.'

`I am convinced, Senor Doctor,' Antonia said, with the earnest calm of invincible resolution, `that this was from the first poor Martin's intention.'

`Yes, but the material interests will not let you jeopardize their development for a mere idea of pity and justice,' the doctor muttered, grumpily. `And it is just as well perhaps.'

The Cardinal-Archbishop straightened up his gaunt, bony frame.

`We have worked for them; we have made them, these material interests of the foreigners,' the last of the Corbelans uttered in a deep, denunciatory tone.

`And without them you are nothing,' cried the doctor from the distance.

`They will not let you.'

`Let them beware, then, lest the people, prevented from their aspirations, should rise and claim their share of the wealth and their share of the power,' the popular Cardinal-Archbishop of Sulaco declared, significantly, menacingly.

A silence ensued, during which his Eminence stared, frowning at the ground, and Antonia, graceful and rigid in her chair, breathed calmly in the strength of her convictions. Then the conversation took a social turn, touching on the visit of the Goulds to Europe. The Cardinal-Archbishop, when in Rome, had suffered from neuralgia in the head all the time. It was the climate -- the bad air.

When uncle and niece had gone away, with the servants again falling on their knees, and the old porter, who had known Henry Gould, almost totally blind and impotent now, creeping up to kiss his Eminence's extended hand, Dr Monygham, looking after them, pronounced the one word:

`Incorrigible!'

Mrs Gould, with a look upwards, dropped wearily on her lap her white hands flashing with the gold and stones of many rings.

`Conspiring. Yes!' said the doctor. `The last of the Avellanos and the last of the Corbelans are conspiring with the refugees from Sta Marta that flock here after every revolution. The Cafe Lambroso at the corner of the Plaza is full of them; you can hear their chatter across the street like the noise of a parrot house. They are conspiring for the invasion of Costaguana.

同类推荐
  • 石城馆酬王将军

    石城馆酬王将军

    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。
  • 蔷薇

    蔷薇

    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。
  • Beasts, Men and Gods

    Beasts, Men and Gods

    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。
  • 紫清指玄集

    紫清指玄集

    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。
  • The Circus Boys Across The Continent

    The Circus Boys Across The Continent

    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
  • 万千烟火是你

    万千烟火是你

    我从不后悔喜欢你,也不遗憾没能和你白首不分离。如海深情,只盼你,即使天涯陌路,也要幸福如故。——致藏在时光里的故人
  • 将军归否

    将军归否

    她聪明无比,嚣张跋扈,深受圣宠,却唯独陷在他编织的情网里,“君墨,我不后悔,如果有来生,我还想爱你一次......”他才华绝世,心机深沉,却唯独败给了她的一句我爱你,“十里,我错了,你回来好不好......”
  • 收魂记

    收魂记

    人死后三魂七魄会散去。如果将三魂和七魄收集回来,可以让人起死回生吗?
  • 都市圣手神医

    都市圣手神医

    林天本是公司里一个小员工,因陷害而被开除,就连老天都不给脸色,让他倒霉。但无意中,林天激活祖上留下的玉佩,拥有无上医术。能起死人肉白骨,更能杀人于无形。他可拳打黑暗王者;脚踢系统附身的草根;打得过深山走出的妖孽少年;干的过身负逆天功法的天才;秒的了重生都市的至尊仙帝。他横扫一切,却是最强的神医!
  • 千年盛宠枕上婚

    千年盛宠枕上婚

    与世隔绝的山谷之中,沉睡千年的莲歌被唤醒,面对这样一个全新的世界,莲歌又该何处何从?却不知,尘世中,那个宠她入骨的男子辗转千年,只为寻找她的踪迹!可谁又能料到,她沉睡的幻境竟然是他亲手布下的结界!当初醒归来的她与等待千年的他重逢,是否还忆起初时目光?*金牌编剧、王牌作家乐小佛出游一趟,神奇的唤醒了自己笔下的女主角,往家里一扔,成了自家妹妹——乐家千金乐小柔!这个妹子啥都好,就是安静得让人有点焦急,乐小佛心急,便是将妹妹带进了娱乐圈——好好玩!却不料,从此家中无宁日,不停上门来求娶妹妹的烂桃花到底是几个意思?*这是一个有关十生十世的故事,经历九生九世的因,换得一生一世的果:永不分离,死生相依!*片段:“我都忍了几千年了,你还这么狠心?”某男哀怨。“我不想明天出不了门……”某女黑线。“没事,明天不用出门。”某男扑过来。“喂……”某女辩解,所有语言都被他的吻吞没了。事实证明,禁欲千年的男人是可怕的,别说第二天,一连七天,某女都没有出门——*现言1v1,故事简单,不过是个等了千年寻了千年的男人疼爱娇妻的故事!另:轻灵旧文《大神爹地,妈咪不好追》的游戏背景就是这个故事,第25章隐藏任务里出现的白衣女子便是这文的女主啦!有兴趣的亲们可以去看看!*推荐轻灵的完结文:《女王威武之大神拐回家》《大神爹地,妈咪不好追》
  • 王朝与职官(和谐教育丛书)

    王朝与职官(和谐教育丛书)

    俗传中国史朝代起讫年匡谬西汉起始年目前多采用公元前206年的说法。前206年是刘邦始建汉王国之年,当时的汉王国只是项羽主命所分封十八王国之一,西楚霸王项羽才是当时的天下最高统治者。本书详细介绍了中国历朝历代的官制,解开我们心中深藏已久的疑惑,赶快和我们一起来翻开此书,品味历史吧。
  • 穿越万界从斗破苍穹开始

    穿越万界从斗破苍穹开始

    萧阳一苏醒来,突然发现自己穿越了,还变成了小孩,而穿越的地方竟然还是斗破苍穹世界的萧家,想着萧家未来的一大堆强敌,像云岚宗啊还好,魂殿魂族的话,是会死人的甚至是生不如死(萧阳躲在角落瑟瑟发抖Σ(°△°|||)︴)。为了活得好好的,萧阳决定借走萧炎的所有机缘,同时,萧阳觉醒了自己的金手指,万界至高系统……重生斗破苍穹,身怀绝世系统,穿越诸天万界,抢尽主角机缘。让我们一起看看萧阳如何在强者如云的斗气大陆生存呢!目前经历位面:斗破苍穹
  • 妖凤嫁到:邪王请接招

    妖凤嫁到:邪王请接招

    傻子?废物?草包?当现代天才云家家主附身于北雪侯府嫡女身上,傻子变天才,修玄气、制毒、炼药不在话下,她腹黑无度,无意把邪君大人也腹黑了一把,然后,她此生最大的成就是把邪君大人扑倒。王爷,本小姐驾到,你还快快接嫁?
  • 四巧工传

    四巧工传

    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。
  • 世界之途

    世界之途

    (全供向)传说中,除了我们生存的宇宙,还有其他无数的平行世界……主角三人因为一次意外,被迫前往了其他世界,寻回自己的朋友。但,事情似乎没有想象中的那么简单……不同的势力,各自的目标与路,契约,还是更大的阴谋?