“The fellow is devoted9 to me, body and soul!” Captain Mitchell was given to affirm; and though nobody, perhaps, could have explained why it should be so, it was impossible on a survey of their relation to throw doubt on that statement, unless, indeed, one were a bitter, eccentric character like Dr. Monygham — for instance — whose short, hopeless laugh expressed somehow an immense mistrust of mankind. Not that Dr. Monygham was a prodigal10 either of laughter or of words. He was bitterly taciturn when at his best. At his worst people feared the open scornfulness of his tongue. Only Mrs. Gould could keep his unbelief in men’s motives12 within due bounds; but even to her (on an occasion not connected with Nostromo, and in a tone which for him was gentle), even to her, he had said once, “Really, it is most unreasonable13 to demand that a man should think of other people so much better than he is able to think of himself.”
And Mrs. Gould had hastened to drop the subject. There were strange rumours14 of the English doctor. Years ago, in the time of Guzman Bento, he had been mixed up, it was whispered, in a conspiracy16 which was betrayed and, as people expressed it, drowned in blood. His hair had turned grey, his hairless, seamed face was of a brick-dust colour; the large check pattern of his flannel17 shirt and his old stained Panama hat were an established defiance18 to the conventionalities of Sulaco. Had it not been for the immaculate cleanliness of his apparel he might have been taken for one of those shiftless Europeans that are a moral eyesore to the respectability of a foreign colony in almost every exotic part of the world. The young ladies of Sulaco, adorning20 with clusters of pretty faces the balconies along the Street of the Constitution, when they saw him pass, with his limping gait and bowed head, a short linen21 jacket drawn22 on carelessly over the flannel check shirt, would remark to each other, “Here is the Senor doctor going to call on Dona Emilia. He has got his little coat on.” The inference was true. Its deeper meaning was hidden from their simple intelligence. Moreover, they expended23 no store of thought on the doctor. He was old, ugly, learned — and a little “loco”— mad, if not a bit of a sorcerer, as the common people suspected him of being. The little white jacket was in reality a concession24 to Mrs. Gould’s humanizing influence. The doctor, with his habit of sceptical, bitter speech, had no other means of showing his profound respect for the character of the woman who was known in the country as the English Senora. He presented this tribute very seriously indeed; it was no trifle for a man of his habits. Mrs. Gould felt that, too, perfectly25. She would never have thought of imposing26 upon him this marked show of deference27.
She kept her old Spanish house (one of the finest specimens28 in Sulaco) open for the dispensation of the small graces of existence. She dispensed29 them with simplicity30 and charm because she was guided by an alert perception of values. She was highly gifted in the art of human intercourse31 which consists in delicate shades of self-forgetfulness and in the suggestion of universal comprehension. Charles Gould (the Gould family, established in Costaguana for three generations, always went to England for their education and for their wives) imagined that he had fallen in love with a girl’s sound common sense like any other man, but these were not exactly the reasons why, for instance, the whole surveying camp, from the youngest of the young men to their mature chief, should have found occasion to allude32 to Mrs. Gould’s house so frequently amongst the high peaks of the Sierra. She would have protested that she had done nothing for them, with a low laugh and a surprised widening of her grey eyes, had anybody told her how convincingly she was remembered on the edge of the snow-line above Sulaco. But directly, with a little capable air of setting her wits to work, she would have found an explanation. “Of course, it was such a surprise for these boys to find any sort of welcome here. And I suppose they are homesick. I suppose everybody must be always just a little homesick.”
She was always sorry for homesick people.
Born in the country, as his father before him, spare and tall, with a flaming moustache, a neat chin, clear blue eyes, auburn hair, and a thin, fresh, red face, Charles Gould looked like a new arrival from over the sea. His grandfather had fought in the cause of independence under Bolivar, in that famous English legion which on the battlefield of Carabobo had been saluted33 by the great Liberator34 as Saviours35 of his country. One of Charles Gould’s uncles had been the elected President of that very province of Sulaco (then called a State) in the days of Federation36, and afterwards had been put up against the wall of a church and shot by the order of the barbarous unionist general, Guzman Bento. It was the same Guzman Bento who, becoming later Perpetual President, famed for his ruthless and cruel tyranny, readied his apotheosis37 in the popular legend of a sanguinary land-haunting spectre whose body had been carried off by the devil in person from the brick mausoleum in the nave38 of the Church of Assumption in Sta. Marta. Thus, at least, the priests explained its disappearance39 to the barefooted multitude that streamed in, awestruck, to gaze at the hole in the side of the ugly box of bricks before the great altar.
Guzman Bento of cruel memory had put to death great numbers of people besides Charles Gould’s uncle; but with a relative martyred in the cause of aristocracy, the Sulaco Oligarchs (this was the phraseology of Guzman Bento’s time; now they were called Blancos, and had given up the federal idea), which meant the families of pure Spanish descent, considered Charles as one of themselves. With such a family record, no one could be more of a Costaguanero than Don Carlos Gould; but his aspect was so characteristic that in the talk of common people he was just the Inglez — the Englishman of Sulaco. He looked more English than a casual tourist, a sort of heretic pilgrim, however, quite unknown in Sulaco. He looked more English than the last arrived batch41 of young railway engineers, than anybody out of the hunting-field pictures in the numbers of Punch reaching his wife’s drawing-room two months or so after date. It astonished you to hear him talk Spanish (Castillan, as the natives say) or the Indian dialect of the country-people so naturally. His accent had never been English; but there was something so indelible in all these ancestral Goulds — liberators, explorers, coffee planters, merchants, revolutionists — of Costaguana, that he, the only representative of the third generation in a continent possessing its own style of horsemanship, went on looking thoroughly42 English even on horseback. This is not said of him in the mocking spirit of the Llaneros — men of the great plains — who think that no one in the world knows how to sit a horse but themselves. Charles Gould, to use the suitably lofty phrase, rode like a centaur43. Riding for him was not a special form of exercise; it was a natural faculty44, as walking straight is to all men sound of mind and limb; but, all the same, when cantering beside the rutty ox-cart track to the mine he looked in his English clothes and with his imported saddlery as though he had come this moment to Costaguana at his easy swift pasotrote, straight out of some green meadow at the other side of the world.
His way would lie along the old Spanish road — the Camino Real of popular speech — the only remaining vestige45 of a fact and name left by that royalty46 old Giorgio Viola hated, and whose very shadow had departed from the land; for the big equestrian47 statue of Charles IV at the entrance of the Alameda, towering white against the trees, was only known to the folk from the country and to the beggars of the town that slept on the steps around the pedestal, as the Horse of Stone. The other Carlos, turning off to the left with a rapid clatter48 of hoofs49 on the disjointed pavement — Don Carlos Gould, in his English clothes, looked as incongruous, but much more at home than the kingly cavalier reining50 in his steed on the pedestal above the sleeping leperos, with his marble arm raised towards the marble rim40 of a plumed hat.
The weather-stained effigy51 of the mounted king, with its vague suggestion of a saluting52 gesture, seemed to present an inscrutable breast to the political changes which had robbed it of its very name; but neither did the other horseman, well known to the people, keen and alive on his well-shaped, slate-coloured beast with a white eye, wear his heart on the sleeve of his English coat. His mind preserved its steady poise53 as if sheltered in the passionless stability of private and public decencies at home in Europe. He accepted with a like calm the shocking manner in which the Sulaco ladies smothered54 their faces with pearl powder till they looked like white plaster casts with beautiful living eyes, the peculiar55 gossip of the town, and the continuous political changes, the constant “saving of the country,” which to his wife seemed a puerile56 and bloodthirsty game of murder and rapine played with terrible earnestness by depraved children. In the early days of her Costaguana life, the little lady used to clench57 her hands with exasperation58 at not being able to take the public affairs of the country as seriously as the incidental atrocity59 of methods deserved. She saw in them a comedy of naive60 pretences61, but hardly anything genuine except her own appalled62 indignation. Charles, very quiet and twisting his long moustaches, would decline to discuss them at all. Once, however, he observed to her gently —
“My dear, you seem to forget that I was born here.” These few words made her pause as if they had been a sudden revelation. Perhaps the mere63 fact of being born in the country did make a difference. She had a great confidence in her husband; it had always been very great. He had struck her imagination from the first by his unsentimentalism, by that very quietude of mind which she had erected64 in her thought for a sign of perfect competency in the business of living. Don Jose Avellanos, their neighbour across the street, a statesman, a poet, a man of culture, who had represented his country at several European Courts (and had suffered untold65 indignities66 as a state prisoner in the time of the tyrant67 Guzman Bento), used to declare in Dona Emilia’s drawing-room that Carlos had all the English qualities of character with a truly patriotic68 heart.
Mrs. Gould, raising her eyes to her husband’s thin, red and tan face, could not detect the slightest quiver of a feature at what he must have heard said of his patriotism69. Perhaps he had just dismounted on his return from the mine; he was English enough to disregard the hottest hours of the day. Basilio, in a livery of white linen and a red sash, had squatted70 for a moment behind his heels to unstrap the heavy, blunt spurs in the patio72; and then the Senor Administrator73 would go up the staircase into the gallery. Rows of plants in pots, ranged on the balustrade between the pilasters of the arches, screened the corredor with their leaves and flowers from the quadrangle below, whose paved space is the true hearthstone of a South American house, where the quiet hours of domestic life are marked by the shifting of light and shadow on the flagstones.
Senor Avellanos was in the habit of crossing the patio at five o’clock almost every day. Don Jose chose to come over at tea-time because the English rite74 at Dona Emilia’s house reminded him of the time he lived in London as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James. He did not like tea; and, usually, rocking his American chair, his neat little shiny boots crossed on the foot-rest, he would talk on and on with a sort of complacent75 virtuosity76 wonderful in a man of his age, while he held the cup in his hands for a long time. His close-cropped head was perfectly white; his eyes coalblack.
On seeing Charles Gould step into the sala he would nod provisionally and go on to the end of the oratorial77 period. Only then he would say —
“Carlos, my friend, you have ridden from San Tome in the heat of the day. Always the true English activity. No? What?”
He drank up all the tea at once in one draught78. This performance was invariably followed by a slight shudder79 and a low, involuntary “br-r-r-r,” which was not covered by the hasty exclamation80, “Excellent!”
Then giving up the empty cup into his young friend’s hand, extended with a smile, he continued to expatiate81 upon the patriotic nature of the San Tome mine for the simple pleasure of talking fluently, it seemed, while his reclining body jerked backwards82 and forwards in a rocking-chair of the sort exported from the United States. The ceiling of the largest drawing-room of the Casa Gould extended its white level far above his head. The loftiness dwarfed83 the mixture of heavy, straight-backed Spanish chairs of brown wood with leathern seats, and European furniture, low, and cushioned all over, like squat71 little monsters gorged85 to bursting with steel springs and horsehair. There were knick-knacks on little tables, mirrors let into the wall above marble consoles, square spaces of carpet under the two groups of armchairs, each presided over by a deep sofa; smaller rugs scattered86 all over the floor of red tiles; three windows from the ceiling down to the ground, opening on a balcony, and flanked by the perpendicular88 folds of the dark hangings. The stateliness of ancient days lingered between the four high, smooth walls, tinted89 a delicate primrose-colour; and Mrs. Gould, with her little head and shining coils of hair, sitting in a cloud of muslin and lace before a slender mahogany table, resembled a fairy posed lightly before dainty philtres dispensed out of vessels90 of silver and porcelain91.
Mrs. Gould knew the history of the San Tome mine. Worked in the early days mostly by means of lashes92 on the backs of slaves, its yield had been paid for in its own weight of human bones. Whole tribes of Indians had perished in the exploitation; and then the mine was abandoned, since with this primitive93 method it had ceased to make a profitable return, no matter how many corpses94 were thrown into its maw. Then it became forgotten. It was rediscovered after the War of Independence. An English company obtained the right to work it, and found so rich a vein95 that neither the exactions of successive governments, nor the periodical raids of recruiting officers upon the population of paid miners they had created, could discourage their perseverance96. But in the end, during the long turmoil97 of pronunciamentos that followed the death of the famous Guzman Bento, the native miners, incited98 to revolt by the emissaries sent out from the capital, had risen upon their English chiefs and murdered them to a man. The decree of confiscation99 which appeared immediately afterwards in the Diario Official, published in Sta. Marta, began with the words: “Justly incensed100 at the grinding oppression of foreigners, actuated by sordid101 motives of gain rather than by love for a country where they come impoverished102 to seek their fortunes, the mining population of San Tome, etc . . . .” and ended with the declaration: “The chief of the State has resolved to exercise to the full his power of clemency103. The mine, which by every law, international, human, and divine, reverts104 now to the Government as national property, shall remain closed till the sword drawn for the sacred defence of liberal principles has accomplished105 its mission of securing the happiness of our beloved country.”
And for many years this was the last of the San Tome mine. What advantage that Government had expected from the spoliation, it is impossible to tell now. Costaguana was made with difficulty to pay a beggarly money compensation to the families of the victims, and then the matter dropped out of diplomatic despatches. But afterwards another Government bethought itself of that valuable asset. It was an ordinary Costaguana Government — the fourth in six years — but it judged of its opportunities sanely106. It remembered the San Tome mine with a secret conviction of its worthlessness in their own hands, but with an ingenious insight into the various uses a silver mine can be put to, apart from the sordid process of extracting the metal from under the ground. The father of Charles Gould, for a long time one of the most wealthy merchants of Costaguana, had already lost a considerable part of his fortune in forced loans to the successive Governments. He was a man of calm judgment108, who never dreamed of pressing his claims; and when, suddenly, the perpetual concession of the San Tome mine was offered to him in full settlement, his alarm became extreme. He was versed109 in the ways of Governments. Indeed, the intention of this affair, though no doubt deeply meditated110 in the closet, lay open on the surface of the document presented urgently for his signature. The third and most important clause stipulated111 that the concession-holder should pay at once to the Government five years’ royalties112 on the estimated output of the mine.
Mr. Gould, senior, defended himself from this fatal favour with many arguments and entreaties113, but without success. He knew nothing of mining; he had no means to put his concession on the European market; the mine as a working concern did not exist. The buildings had been burnt down, the mining plant had been destroyed, the mining population had disappeared from the neighbourhood years and years ago; the very road had vanished under a flood of tropical vegetation as effectually as if swallowed by the sea; and the main gallery had fallen in within a hundred yards from the entrance. It was no longer an abandoned mine; it was a wild, inaccessible114, and rocky gorge84 of the Sierra, where vestiges115 of charred116 timber, some heaps of smashed bricks, and a few shapeless pieces of rusty117 iron could have been found under the matted mass of thorny118 creepers covering the ground. Mr. Gould, senior, did not desire the perpetual possession of that desolate119 locality; in fact, the mere vision of it arising before his mind in the still watches of the night had the power to exasperate120 him into hours of hot and agitated121 insomnia122.
It so happened, however, that the Finance Minister of the time was a man to whom, in years gone by, Mr. Gould had, unfortunately, declined to grant some small pecuniary123 assistance, basing his refusal on the ground that the applicant124 was a notorious gambler and cheat, besides being more than half suspected of a robbery with violence on a wealthy ranchero in a remote country district, where he was actually exercising the function of a judge. Now, after reaching his exalted125 position, that politician had proclaimed his intention to repay evil with good to Senor Gould — the poor man. He affirmed and reaffirmed this resolution in the drawing-rooms of Sta. Marta, in a soft and implacable voice, and with such malicious126 glances that Mr. Gould’s best friends advised him earnestly to attempt no bribery127 to get the matter dropped. It would have been useless. Indeed, it would not have been a very safe proceeding128. Such was also the opinion of a stout129, loud-voiced lady of French extraction, the daughter, she said, of an officer of high rank (officier superieur de l’armee), who was accommodated with lodgings131 within the walls of a secularized convent next door to the Ministry132 of Finance. That florid person, when approached on behalf of Mr. Gould in a proper manner, and with a suitable present, shook her head despondently133. 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 intonation134 which was natural to her, and using turns of expression more suitable to a child of parents unknown than to the orphaned135 daughter of a general officer. “No; it’s no go. Pas moyen, mon garcon. C’est dommage, tout130 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 carmine137 lip, she deplored138 inwardly the tyranny of the rigid139 principles governing the sale of her influence in high places. Then, significantly, and with a touch of impatience140, “Allez,” she added, “et dites bien a votre bonhomme — entendez-vous? — qu’il faut avaler la pilule.”
After such a warning there was nothing for it but to sign and pay. Mr. Gould had swallowed the pill, and it was as though it had been compounded of some subtle poison that acted directly on his brain. He became at once mine-ridden, and as he was well read in light literature it took to his mind the form of the Old Man of the Sea fastened upon his shoulders. He also began to dream of vampires141. Mr. Gould exaggerated to himself the disadvantages of his new position, because he viewed it emotionally. His position in Costaguana was no worse than before. But man is a desperately142 conservative creature, and the extravagant143 novelty of this outrage144 upon his purse distressed145 his sensibilities. Everybody around him was being robbed by the grotesque147 and murderous bands that played their game of governments and revolutions after the death of Guzman Bento. His experience had taught him that, however short the plunder148 might fall of their legitimate expectations, no gang in possession of the Presidential Palace would be so incompetent149 as to suffer itself to be baffled by the want of a pretext150. The first casual colonel of the barefooted army of scarecrows that came along was able to expose with force and precision to any mere civilian151 his titles to a sum of 10,000 dollars; the while his hope would be immutably152 fixed153 upon a gratuity154, at any rate, of no less than a thousand. Mr. Gould knew that very well, and, armed with resignation, had waited for better times. But to be robbed under the forms of legality and business was intolerable to his imagination. Mr. Gould, the father, had one fault in his sagacious and honourable155 character: he attached too much importance to form. It is a failing common to mankind, whose views are tinged156 by prejudices. There was for him in that affair a malignancy of perverted157 justice which, by means of a moral shock, attacked his vigorous physique. “It will end by killing158 me,” he used to affirm many times a day. And, in fact, since that time he began to suffer from fever, from liver pains, and mostly from a worrying inability to think of anything else. The Finance Minister could have formed no conception of the profound subtlety159 of his revenge. Even Mr. Gould’s letters to his fourteen-year-old boy Charles, then away in England for his education, came at last to talk of practically nothing but the mine. He groaned160 over the injustice161, the persecution162, the outrage of that mine; he occupied whole pages in the exposition of the fatal consequences attaching to the possession of that mine from every point of view, with every dismal163 inference, with words of horror at the apparently164 eternal character of that curse. For the Concession had been granted to him and his descendants for ever. He implored165 his son never to return to Costaguana, never to claim any part of his inheritance there, because it was tainted166 by the infamous167 Concession; never to touch it, never to approach it, to forget that America existed, and pursue a mercantile career in Europe. And each letter ended with bitter self-reproaches for having stayed too long in that cavern168 of thieves, intriguers, and brigands170.
To be told repeatedly that one’s future is blighted171 because of the possession of a silver mine is not, at the age of fourteen, a matter of prime importance as to its main statement; but in its form it is calculated to excite a certain amount of wonder and attention. In course of time the boy, at first only puzzled by the angry jeremiads, but rather sorry for his dad, began to turn the matter over in his mind in such moments as he could spare from play and study. In about a year he had evolved from the lecture of the letters a definite conviction that there was a silver mine in the Sulaco province of the Republic of Costaguana, where poor Uncle Harry172 had been shot by soldiers a great many years before. There was also connected closely with that mine a thing called the “iniquitous173 Gould Concession,” apparently written on a paper which his father desired ardently174 to “tear and fling into the faces” of presidents, members of judicature, and ministers of State. And this desire persisted, though the names of these people, he noticed, seldom remained the same for a whole year together. This desire (since the thing was iniquitous) seemed quite natural to the boy, though why the affair was iniquitous he did not know. Afterwards, with advancing wisdom, he managed to clear the plain truth of the business from the fantastic intrusions of the Old Man of the Sea, vampires, and ghouls, which had lent to his father’s correspondence the flavour of a gruesome Arabian Nights tale. In the end, the growing youth attained175 to as close an intimacy176 with the San Tome mine as the old man who wrote these plaintive177 and enraged178 letters on the other side of the sea. He had been made several times already to pay heavy fines for neglecting to work the mine, he reported, besides other sums extracted from him on account of future royalties, on the ground that a man with such a valuable concession in his pocket could not refuse his financial assistance to the Government of the Republic. The last of his fortune was passing away from him against worthless receipts, he wrote, in a rage, whilst he was being pointed179 out as an individual who had known how to secure enormous advantages from the necessities of his country. And the young man in Europe grew more and more interested in that thing which could provoke such a tumult180 of words and passion.
He thought of it every day; but he thought of it without bitterness. It might have been an unfortunate affair for his poor dad, and the whole story threw a queer light upon the social and political life of Costaguana. The view he took of it was sympathetic to his father, yet calm and reflective. His personal feelings had not been outraged181, and it is difficult to resent with proper and durable182 indignation the physical or mental anguish183 of another organism, even if that other organism is one’s own father. By the time he was twenty Charles Gould had, in his turn, fallen under the spell of the San Tome mine. But it was another form of enchantment184, more suitable to his youth, into whose magic formula there entered hope, vigour185, and self-confidence, instead of weary indignation and despair. Left after he was twenty to his own guidance (except for the severe injunction not to return to Costaguana), he had pursued his studies in Belgium and France with the idea of qualifying for a mining engineer. But this scientific aspect of his labours remained vague and imperfect in his mind. Mines had acquired for him a dramatic interest. He studied their peculiarities186 from a personal point of view, too, as one would study the varied187 characters of men. He visited them as one goes with curiosity to call upon remarkable188 persons. He visited mines in Germany, in Spain, in Cornwall. Abandoned workings had for him strong fascination189. Their desolation appealed to him like the sight of human misery190, whose causes are varied and profound. They might have been worthless, but also they might have been misunderstood. His future wife was the first, and perhaps the only person to detect this secret mood which governed the profoundly sensible, almost voiceless attitude of this man towards the world of material things. And at once her delight in him, lingering with half-open wings like those birds that cannot rise easily from a flat level, found a pinnacle191 from which to soar up into the skies.
They had become acquainted in Italy, where the future Mrs. Gould was staying with an old and pale aunt who, years before, had married a middle-aged192, impoverished Italian marquis. She now mourned that man, who had known how to give up his life to the independence and unity193 of his country, who had known how to be as enthusiastic in his generosity194 as the youngest of those who fell for that very cause of which old Giorgio Viola was a drifting relic196, as a broken spar is suffered to float away disregarded after a naval197 victory. The Marchesa led a still, whispering existence, nun-like in her black robes and a white band over the forehead, in a corner of the first floor of an ancient and ruinous palace, whose big, empty halls downstairs sheltered under their painted ceilings the harvests, the fowls198, and even the cattle, together with the whole family of the tenant199 farmer.
The two young people had met in Lucca. After that meeting Charles Gould visited no mines, though they went together in a carriage, once, to see some marble quarries200, where the work resembled mining in so far that it also was the tearing of the raw material of treasure from the earth. Charles Gould did not open his heart to her in any set speeches. He simply went on acting107 and thinking in her sight. This is the true method of sincerity201. One of his frequent remarks was, “I think sometimes that poor father takes a wrong view of that San Tome business.” And they discussed that opinion long and earnestly, as if they could influence a mind across half the globe; but in reality they discussed it because the sentiment of love can enter into any subject and live ardently in remote phrases. For this natural reason these discussions were precious to Mrs. Gould in her engaged state. Charles feared that Mr. Gould, senior, was wasting his strength and making himself ill by his efforts to get rid of the Concession. “I fancy that this is not the kind of handling it requires,” he mused202 aloud, as if to himself. And when she wondered frankly203 that a man of character should devote his energies to plotting and intrigues204, Charles would remark, with a gentle concern that understood her wonder, “You must not forget that he was born there.”
She would set her quick mind to work upon that, and then make the inconsequent retort, which he accepted as perfectly sagacious, because, in fact, it was so —
“Well, and you? You were born there, too.”
He knew his answer.
“That’s different. I’ve been away ten years. Dad never had such a long spell; and it was more than thirty years ago.”
She was the first person to whom he opened his lips after receiving the news of his father’s death.
“It has killed him!” he said.
He had walked straight out of town with the news, straight out before him in the noonday sun on the white road, and his feet had brought him face to face with her in the hall of the ruined palazzo, a room magnificent and naked, with here and there a long strip of damask, black with damp and age, hanging down on a bare panel of the wall. It was furnished with exactly one gilt205 armchair, with a broken back, and an octagon columnar stand bearing a heavy marble vase ornamented206 with sculptured masks and garlands of flowers, and cracked from top to bottom. Charles Gould was dusty with the white dust of the road lying on his boots, on his shoulders, on his cap with two peaks. Water dripped from under it all over his face, and he grasped a thick oaken cudgel in his bare right hand.
She went very pale under the roses of her big straw hat, gloved, swinging a clear sunshade, caught just as she was going out to meet him at the bottom of the hill, where three poplars stand near the wall of a vineyard.
“It has killed him!” he repeated. “He ought to have had many years yet. We are a long-lived family.”
She was too startled to say anything; he was contemplating207 with a penetrating208 and motionless stare the cracked marble urn11 as though he had resolved to fix its shape for ever in his memory. It was only when, turning suddenly to her, he blurted209 out twice, “I’ve come to you — I’ve come straight to you — ” without being able to finish his phrase, that the great pitifulness of that lonely and tormented210 death in Costaguana came to her with the full force of its misery. He caught hold of her hand, raised it to his lips, and at that she dropped her parasol to pat him on the cheek, murmured “Poor boy,” and began to dry her eyes under the downward curve of her hat-brim, very small in her simple, white frock, almost like a lost child crying in the degraded grandeur211 of the noble hall, while he stood by her, again perfectly motionless in the contemplation of the marble urn.
Afterwards they went out for a long walk, which was silent till he exclaimed suddenly —
“Yes. But if he had only grappled with it in a proper way!”
And then they stopped. Everywhere there were long shadows lying on the hills, on the roads, on the enclosed fields of olive trees; the shadows of poplars, of wide chestnuts212, of farm buildings, of stone walls; and in mid-air the sound of a bell, thin and alert, was like the throbbing213 pulse of the sunset glow. Her lips were slightly parted as though in surprise that he should not be looking at her with his usual expression. His usual expression was unconditionally214 approving and attentive215. He was in his talks with her the most anxious and deferential216 of dictators, an attitude that pleased her immensely. It affirmed her power without detracting from his dignity. That slight girl, with her little feet, little hands, little face attractively overweighted by great coils of hair; with a rather large mouth, whose mere parting seemed to breathe upon you the fragrance217 of frankness and generosity, had the fastidious soul of an experienced woman. She was, before all things and all flatteries, careful of her pride in the object of her choice. But now he was actually not looking at her at all; and his expression was tense and irrational218, as is natural in a man who elects to stare at nothing past a young girl’s head.
“Well, yes. It was iniquitous. They corrupted219 him thoroughly, the poor old boy. Oh! why wouldn’t he let me go back to him? But now I shall know how to grapple with this.”
After pronouncing these words with immense assurance, he glanced down at her, and at once fell a prey220 to distress146, incertitude221, and fear.
The only thing he wanted to know now, he said, was whether she did love him enough — whether she would have the courage to go with him so far away? He put these questions to her in a voice that trembled with anxiety — for he was a determined222 man.
She did. She would. And immediately the future hostess of all the Europeans in Sulaco had the physical experience of the earth falling away from under her. It vanished completely, even to the very sound of the bell. When her feet touched the ground again, the bell was still ringing in the valley; she put her hands up to her hair, breathing quickly, and glanced up and down the stony223 lane. It was reassuringly224 empty. Meantime, Charles, stepping with one foot into a dry and dusty ditch, picked up the open parasol, which had bounded away from them with a martial225 sound of drum taps. He handed it to her soberly, a little crestfallen226.
They turned back, and after she had slipped her hand on his arm, the first words he pronounced were —
“It’s lucky that we shall be able to settle in a coast town. You’ve heard its name. It is Sulaco. I am so glad poor father did get that house. He bought a big house there years ago, in order that there should always be a Casa Gould in the principal town of what used to be called the Occidental Province. I lived there once, as a small boy, with my dear mother, for a whole year, while poor father was away in the United States on business. You shall be the new mistress of the Casa Gould.”
And later, in the inhabited corner of the Palazzo above the vineyards, the marble hills, the pines and olives of Lucca, he also said —
“The name of Gould has been always highly respected in Sulaco. My uncle Harry was chief of the State for some time, and has left a great name amongst the first families. By this I mean the pure Creole families, who take no part in the miserable227 farce228 of governments. Uncle Harry was no adventurer. In Costaguana we Goulds are no adventurers. He was of the country, and he loved it, but he remained essentially229 an Englishman in his ideas. He made use of the political cry of his time. It was Federation. But he was no politician. He simply stood up for social order out of pure love for rational liberty and from his hate of oppression. There was no nonsense about him. He went to work in his own way because it seemed right, just as I feel I must lay hold of that mine.”
In such words he talked to her because his memory was very full of the country of his childhood, his heart of his life with that girl, and his mind of the San Tome Concession. He added that he would have to leave her for a few days to find an American, a man from San Francisco, who was still somewhere in Europe. A few months before he had made his acquaintance in an old historic German town, situated230 in a mining district. The American had his womankind with him, but seemed lonely while they were sketching231 all day long the old doorways233 and the turreted234 corners of the mediaeval houses. Charles Gould had with him the inseparable companionship of the mine. The other man was interested in mining enterprises, knew something of Costaguana, and was no stranger to the name of Gould. They had talked together with some intimacy which was made possible by the difference of their ages. Charles wanted now to find that capitalist of shrewd mind and accessible character. His father’s fortune in Costaguana, which he had supposed to be still considerable, seemed to have melted in the rascally235 crucible236 of revolutions. Apart from some ten thousand pounds deposited in England, there appeared to be nothing left except the house in Sulaco, a vague right of forest exploitation in a remote and savage237 district, and the San Tome Concession, which had attended his poor father to the very brink238 of the grave.
He explained those things. It was late when they parted. She had never before given him such a fascinating vision of herself. All the eagerness of youth for a strange life, for great distances, for a future in which there was an air of adventure, of combat — a subtle thought of redress239 and conquest, had filled her with an intense excitement, which she returned to the giver with a more open and exquisite240 display of tenderness.
He left her to walk down the hill, and directly he found himself alone he became sober. That irreparable change a death makes in the course of our daily thoughts can be felt in a vague and poignant241 discomfort242 of mind. It hurt Charles Gould to feel that never more, by no effort of will, would he be able to think of his father in the same way he used to think of him when the poor man was alive. His breathing image was no longer in his power. This consideration, closely affecting his own identity, filled his breast with a mournful and angry desire for action. In this his instinct was unerring. Action is consolatory243. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions. Only in the conduct of our action can we find the sense of mastery over the Fates. For his action, the mine was obviously the only field. It was imperative244 sometimes to know how to disobey the solemn wishes of the dead. He resolved firmly to make his disobedience as thorough (by way of atonement) as it well could be. The mine had been the cause of an absurd moral disaster; its working must be made a serious and moral success. He owed it to the dead man’s memory. Such were the — properly speaking — emotions of Charles Gould. His thoughts ran upon the means of raising a large amount of capital in San Francisco or elsewhere; and incidentally there occurred to him also the general reflection that the counsel of the departed must be an unsound guide. Not one of them could be aware beforehand what enormous changes the death of any given individual may produce in the very aspect of the world.
The latest phase in the history of the mine Mrs. Gould knew from personal experience. It was in essence the history of her married life. The mantle245 of the Goulds’ hereditary246 position in Sulaco had descended247 amply upon her little person; but she would not allow the peculiarities of the strange garment to weigh down the vivacity248 of her character, which was the sign of no mere mechanical sprightliness249, but of an eager intelligence. It must not be supposed that Mrs. Gould’s mind was masculine. A woman with a masculine mind is not a being of superior efficiency; she is simply a phenomenon of imperfect differentiation250 — interestingly barren and without importance. Dona Emilia’s intelligence being feminine led her to achieve the conquest of Sulaco, simply by lighting251 the way for her unselfishness and sympathy. She could converse252 charmingly, but she was not talkative. The wisdom of the heart having no concern with the erection or demolition253 of theories any more than with the defence of prejudices, has no random254 words at its command. The words it pronounces have the value of acts of integrity, tolerance255, and compassion256. A woman’s true tenderness, like the true virility257 of man, is expressed in action of a conquering kind. The ladies of Sulaco adored Mrs. Gould. “They still look upon me as something of a monster,” Mrs. Gould had said pleasantly to one of the three gentlemen from San Francisco she had to entertain in her new Sulaco house just about a year after her marriage.
They were her first visitors from abroad, and they had come to look at the San Tome mine. She jested most agreeably, they thought; and Charles Gould, besides knowing thoroughly what he was about, had shown himself a real hustler. These facts caused them to be well disposed towards his wife. An unmistakable enthusiasm, pointed by a slight flavour of irony258, made her talk of the mine absolutely fascinating to her visitors, and provoked them to grave and indulgent smiles in which there was a good deal of deference. Perhaps had they known how much she was inspired by an idealistic view of success they would have been amazed at the state of her mind as the Spanish-American ladies had been amazed at the tireless activity of her body. She would — in her own words — have been for them “something of a monster.” However, the Goulds were in essentials a reticent259 couple, and their guests departed without the suspicion of any other purpose but simple profit in the working of a silver mine. Mrs. Gould had out her own carriage, with two white mules260, to drive them down to the harbour, whence the Ceres was to carry them off into the Olympus of plutocrats. Captain Mitchell had snatched at the occasion of leave-taking to remark to Mrs. Gould, in a low, confidential261 mutter, “This marks an epoch262.”
Mrs. Gould loved the patio of her Spanish house. A broad flight of stone steps was overlooked silently from a niche263 in the wall by a Madonna in blue robes with the crowned child sitting on her arm. Subdued264 voices ascended265 in the early mornings from the paved well of the quadrangle, with the stamping of horses and mules led out in pairs to drink at the cistern266. A tangle267 of slender bamboo stems drooped268 its narrow, blade-like leaves over the square pool of water, and the fat coachman sat muffled269 up on the edge, holding lazily the ends of halters in his hand. Barefooted servants passed to and fro, issuing from dark, low doorways below; two laundry girls with baskets of washed linen; the baker270 with the tray of bread made for the day; Leonarda — her own camerista — bearing high up, swung from her hand raised above her raven271 black head, a bunch of starched272 under-skirts dazzlingly white in the slant273 of sunshine. Then the old porter would hobble in, sweeping274 the flagstones, and the house was ready for the day. All the lofty rooms on three sides of the quadrangle opened into each other and into the corredor, with its wrought-iron railings and a border of flowers, whence, like the lady of the mediaeval castle, she could witness from above all the departures and arrivals of the Casa, to which the sonorous275 arched gateway276 lent an air of stately importance.
She had watched her carriage roll away with the three guests from the north. She smiled. Their three arms went up simultaneously277 to their three hats. Captain Mitchell, the fourth, in attendance, had already begun a pompous278 discourse279. Then she lingered. She lingered, approaching her face to the clusters of flowers here and there as if to give time to her thoughts to catch up with her slow footsteps along the straight vista280 of the corredor.
A fringed Indian hammock from Aroa, gay with coloured featherwork, had been swung judiciously281 in a corner that caught the early sun; for the mornings are cool in Sulaco. The cluster of flor de noche buena blazed in great masses before the open glass doors of the reception rooms. A big green parrot, brilliant like an emerald in a cage that flashed like gold, screamed out ferociously282, “Viva Costaguana!” then called twice mellifluously283, “Leonarda! Leonarda!” in imitation of Mrs. Gould’s voice, and suddenly took refuge in immobility and silence. Mrs. Gould reached the end of the gallery and put her head through the door of her husband’s room.
Charles Gould, with one foot on a low wooden stool, was already strapping285 his spurs. He wanted to hurry back to the mine. Mrs. Gould, without coming in, glanced about the room. One tall, broad bookcase, with glass doors, was full of books; but in the other, without shelves, and lined with red baize, were arranged firearms: Winchester carbines, revolvers, a couple of shot-guns, and even two pairs of double-barrelled holster pistols. Between them, by itself, upon a strip of scarlet286 velvet287, hung an old cavalry288 sabre, once the property of Don Enrique Gould, the hero of the Occidental Province, presented by Don Jose Avellanos, the hereditary friend of the family.
Otherwise, the plastered white walls were completely bare, except for a water-colour sketch232 of the San Tome mountain — the work of Dona Emilia herself. In the middle of the red-tiled floor stood two long tables littered with plans and papers, a few chairs, and a glass show-case containing specimens of ore from the mine. Mrs. Gould, looking at all these things in turn, wondered aloud why the talk of these wealthy and enterprising men discussing the prospects289, the working, and the safety of the mine rendered her so impatient and uneasy, whereas she could talk of the mine by the hour with her husband with unwearied interest and satisfaction. And dropping her eyelids290 expressively291, she added —
“What do you feel about it, Charley?”
Then, surprised at her husband’s silence, she raised her eyes, opened wide, as pretty as pale flowers. He had done with the spurs, and, twisting his moustache with both hands, horizontally, he contemplated292 her from the height of his long legs with a visible appreciation293 of her appearance. The consciousness of being thus contemplated pleased Mrs. Gould.
“They are considerable men,” he said.
“I know. But have you listened to their conversation? They don’t seem to have understood anything they have seen here.”
“They have seen the mine. They have understood that to some purpose,” Charles Gould interjected, in defence of the visitors; and then his wife mentioned the name of the most considerable of the three. He was considerable in finance and in industry. His name was familiar to many millions of people. He was so considerable that he would never have travelled so far away from the centre of his activity if the doctors had not insisted, with veiled menaces, on his taking a long holiday.
“Mr. Holroyd’s sense of religion,” Mrs. Gould pursued, “was shocked and disgusted at the tawdriness of the dressed-up saints in the cathedral — the worship, he called it, of wood and tinsel. But it seemed to me that he looked upon his own God as a sort of influential294 partner, who gets his share of profits in the endowment of churches. That’s a sort of idolatry. He told me he endowed churches every year, Charley.”
“No end of them,” said Mr. Gould, marvelling295 inwardly at the mobility284 of her physiognomy. “All over the country. He’s famous for that sort of munificence296.” “Oh, he didn’t boast,” Mrs. Gould declared, scrupulously297. “I believe he’s really a good man, but so stupid! A poor Chulo who offers a little silver arm or leg to thank his god for a cure is as rational and more touching298.”
“He’s at the head of immense silver and iron interests,” Charles Gould observed.
“Ah, yes! The religion of silver and iron. He’s a very civil man, though he looked awfully299 solemn when he first saw the Madonna on the staircase, who’s only wood and paint; but he said nothing to me. My dear Charley, I heard those men talk among themselves. Can it be that they really wish to become, for an immense consideration, drawers of water and hewers of wood to all the countries and nations of the earth?”
“A man must work to some end,” Charles Gould said, vaguely300.
Mrs. Gould, frowning, surveyed him from head to foot. With his riding breeches, leather leggings (an article of apparel never before seen in Costaguana), a Norfolk coat of grey flannel, and those great flaming moustaches, he suggested an officer of cavalry turned gentleman farmer. This combination was gratifying to Mrs. Gould’s tastes. “How thin the poor boy is!” she thought. “He overworks himself.” But there was no denying that his fine-drawn, keen red face, and his whole, long-limbed, lank87 person had an air of breeding and distinction. And Mrs. Gould relented.
“I only wondered what you felt,” she murmured, gently.
During the last few days, as it happened, Charles Gould had been kept too busy thinking twice before he spoke301 to have paid much attention to the state of his feelings. But theirs was a successful match, and he had no difficulty in finding his answer.
“The best of my feelings are in your keeping, my dear,” he said, lightly; and there was so much truth in that obscure phrase that he experienced towards her at the moment a great increase of gratitude302 and tenderness.
Mrs. Gould, however, did not seem to find this answer in the least obscure. She brightened up delicately; already he had changed his tone.
“But there are facts. The worth of the mine — as a mine — is beyond doubt. It shall make us very wealthy. The mere working of it is a matter of technical knowledge, which I have — which ten thousand other men in the world have. But its safety, its continued existence as an enterprise, giving a return to men — to strangers, comparative strangers — who invest money in it, is left altogether in my hands. I have inspired confidence in a man of wealth and position. You seem to think this perfectly natural — do you? Well, I don’t know. I don’t know why I have; but it is a fact. This fact makes everything possible, because without it I would never have thought of disregarding my father’s wishes. I would never have disposed of the Concession as a speculator disposes of a valuable right to a company — for cash and shares, to grow rich eventually if possible, but at any rate to put some money at once in his pocket. No. Even if it had been feasible — which I doubt — I would not have done so. Poor father did not understand. He was afraid I would hang on to the ruinous thing, waiting for just some such chance, and waste my life miserably303. That was the true sense of his prohibition304, which we have deliberately305 set aside.”
They were walking up and down the corredor. Her head just reached to his shoulder. His arm, extended downwards306, was about her waist. His spurs jingled307 slightly.
“He had not seen me for ten years. He did not know me. He parted from me for my sake, and he would never let me come back. He was always talking in his letters of leaving Costaguana, of abandoning everything and making his escape. But he was too valuable a prey. They would have thrown him into one of their prisons at the first suspicion.”
His spurred feet clinked slowly. He was bending over his wife as they walked. The big parrot, turning its head askew309, followed their pacing figures with a round, unblinking eye.
“He was a lonely man. Ever since I was ten years old he used to talk to me as if I had been grown up. When I was in Europe he wrote to me every month. Ten, twelve pages every month of my life for ten years. And, after all, he did not know me! Just think of it — ten whole years away; the years I was growing up into a man. He could not know me. Do you think he could?”
Mrs. Gould shook her head negatively; which was just what her husband had expected from the strength of the argument. But she shook her head negatively only because she thought that no one could know her Charles — really know him for what he was but herself. The thing was obvious. It could be felt. It required no argument. And poor Mr. Gould, senior, who had died too soon to ever hear of their engagement, remained too shadowy a figure for her to be credited with knowledge of any sort whatever.
“No, he did not understand. In my view this mine could never have been a thing to sell. Never! After all his misery I simply could not have touched it for money alone,” Charles Gould pursued: and she pressed her head to his shoulder approvingly.
These two young people remembered the life which had ended wretchedly just when their own lives had come together in that splendour of hopeful love, which to the most sensible minds appears like a triumph of good over all the evils of the earth. A vague idea of rehabilitation310 had entered the plan of their life. That it was so vague as to elude311 the support of argument made it only the stronger. It had presented itself to them at the instant when the woman’s instinct of devotion and the man’s instinct of activity receive from the strongest of illusions their most powerful impulse. The very prohibition imposed the necessity of success. It was as if they had been morally bound to make good their vigorous view of life against the unnatural312 error of weariness and despair. If the idea of wealth was present to them it was only in so far as it was bound with that other success. Mrs. Gould, an orphan136 from early childhood and without fortune, brought up in an atmosphere of intellectual interests, had never considered the aspects of great wealth. They were too remote, and she had not learned that they were desirable. On the other hand, she had not known anything of absolute want. Even the very poverty of her aunt, the Marchesa, had nothing intolerable to a refined mind; it seemed in accord with a great grief: it had the austerity of a sacrifice offered to a noble ideal. Thus even the most legitimate touch of materialism313 was wanting in Mrs. Gould’s character. The dead man of whom she thought with tenderness (because he was Charley’s father) and with some impatience (because he had been weak), must be put completely in the wrong. Nothing else would do to keep their prosperity without a stain on its only real, on its immaterial side!
Charles Gould, on his part, had been obliged to keep the idea of wealth well to the fore19; but he brought it forward as a means, not as an end. Unless the mine was good business it could not be touched. He had to insist on that aspect of the enterprise. It was his lever to move men who had capital. And Charles Gould believed in the mine. He knew everything that could be known of it. His faith in the mine was contagious314, though it was not served by a great eloquence315; but business men are frequently as sanguine316 and imaginative as lovers. They are affected317 by a personality much oftener than people would suppose; and Charles Gould, in his unshaken assurance, was absolutely convincing. Besides, it was a matter of common knowledge to the men to whom he addressed himself that mining in Costaguana was a game that could be made considably more than worth the candle. The men of affairs knew that very well. The real difficulty in touching it was elsewhere. Against that there was an implication of calm and implacable resolution 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 apparently impulsive318 and human grounds. “Very well,” had said the considerable personage to whom Charles Gould on his way out through San Francisco had lucidly319 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 resembles 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; devastating320 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 language of horrid321 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 eyebrows322 were still black, and his massive profile was the profile of a Caesar’s head on an old Roman coin. But his parentage was German and Scotch323 and English, with remote strains of Danish and French blood, giving him the temperament324 of a Puritan and an insatiable imagination of conquest. He was completely unbending to his visitor, because of the warm introduction the visitor had brought from Europe, and because of an irrational liking325 for earnestness and determination wherever met, to whatever end directed.
“The Costaguana Government shall play its hand for all it’s worth — and don’t you forget it, Mr. Gould. Now, what is Costaguana? It is the bottomless pit of 10 per cent. loans and other fool investments. European capital has been flung into it with both hands for years. Not ours, though. We in this country know just about enough to keep indoors when it rains. We can sit and watch. Of course, some day we shall step in. We are bound to. But there’s no hurry. Time itself has got to wait on the greatest country in the whole of God’s Universe. We shall be giving the word for everything: industry, trade, law, journalism326, art, politics, and religion, from Cape308 Horn clear over to Smith’s Sound, and beyond, too, if anything worth taking hold of turns up at the North Pole. And then we shall have the leisure to take in hand the outlying islands and continents of the earth. We shall run the world’s business whether the world likes it or not. The world can’t help it — and neither can we, I guess.”
By this he meant to express his faith in destiny in words suitable to his intelligence, which was unskilled in the presentation of general ideas. His intelligence was nourished on facts; and Charles Gould, whose imagination had been permanently327 affected by the one great fact of a silver mine, had no objection to this theory of the world’s future. If it had seemed distasteful for a moment it was because the sudden statement of such vast eventualities dwarfed almost to nothingness the actual matter in hand. He and his plans and all the mineral wealth of the Occidental Province appeared suddenly robbed of every vestige of magnitude. The sensation was disagreeable; but Charles Gould was not dull. Already he felt that he was producing a favourable328 impression; the consciousness of that flattering fact helped him to a vague smile, which his big interlocutor took for a smile of discreet329 and admiring assent330. He smiled quietly, too; and immediately Charles Gould, with that mental agility331 mankind will display in defence of a cherished hope, reflected that the very apparent insignificance332 of his aim would help him to success. His personality and his mine would be taken up because it was a matter of no great consequence, one way or another, to a man who referred his action to such a prodigious333 destiny. And Charles Gould was not humiliated334 by this consideration, because the thing remained as big as ever for him. Nobody else’s vast conceptions of destiny could diminish the aspect of his desire for the redemption of the San Tome mine. In comparison to the correctness of his aim, definite in space and absolutely attainable335 within a limited time, the other man appeared for an instant as a dreamy idealist of no importance.
The great man, massive and benignant, had been looking at him thoughtfully; when he broke the short silence it was to remark that concessions336 flew about thick in the air of Costaguana. Any simple soul that just yearned337 to be taken in could bring down a concession at the first shot.
“Our consuls338 get their mouths stopped with them,” he continued, with a twinkle of genial339 scorn in his eyes. But in a moment he became grave. “A conscientious340, upright man, that cares nothing for boodle, and keeps clear of their intrigues, conspiracies341, and factions342, soon gets his passports. See that, Mr. Gould? Persona non grata. That’s the reason our Government is never properly informed. On the other hand, Europe must be kept out of this continent, and for proper interference on our part the time is not yet ripe, I dare say. But we here — we are not this country’s Government, neither are we simple souls. Your affair is all right. The main question for us is whether the second partner, and that’s you, is the right sort to hold his own against the third and unwelcome partner, which is one or another of the high and mighty344 robber gangs that run the Costaguana Government. What do you think, Mr. Gould, eh?”
He bent15 forward to look steadily345 into the unflinching eyes of Charles Gould, who, remembering the large box full of his father’s letters, put the accumulated scorn and bitterness of many years into the tone of his answer —
“As far as the knowledge of these men and their methods and their politics is concerned, I can answer for myself. I have been fed on that sort of knowledge since I was a boy. I am not likely to fall into mistakes from excess of optimism.”
“Not likely, eh? That’s all right. Tact6 and a stiff upper lip is what you’ll want; and you could bluff346 a little on the strength of your backing. Not too much, though. We will go with you as long as the thing runs straight. But we won’t be drawn into any large trouble. This is the experiment which I am willing to make. There is some risk, and we will take it; but if you can’t keep up your end, we will stand our loss, of course, and then — we’ll let the thing go. This mine can wait; it has been shut up before, as you know. You must understand that under no circumstances will we consent to throw good money after bad.”
Thus the great personage had spoken then, in his own private office, in a great city where other men (very considerable in the eyes of a vain populace) waited with alacrity347 upon a wave of his hand. And rather more than a year later, during his unexpected appearance in Sulaco, he had emphasized his uncompromising attitude with a freedom of sincerity permitted to his wealth and influence. He did this with the less reserve, perhaps, because the inspection348 of what had been done, and more still the way in which successive steps had been taken, had impressed him with the conviction that Charles Gould was perfectly capable of keeping up his end.
“This young fellow,” he thought to himself, “may yet become a power in the land.”
This thought flattered him, for hitherto the only account of this young man he could give to his intimates was —
“My brother-in-law met him in one of these one-horse old German towns, near some mines, and sent him on to me with a letter. He’s one of the Costaguana Goulds, pure-bred Englishmen, but all born in the country. His uncle went into politics, was the last Provincial349 President of Sulaco, and got shot after a battle. His father was a prominent business man in Sta. Marta, tried to keep clear of their politics, and died ruined after a lot of revolutions. And that’s your Costaguana in a nutshell.”
Of course, he was too great a man to be questioned as to his motives, even by his intimates. The outside world was at liberty to wonder respectfully at the hidden meaning of his actions. He was so great a man that his lavish350 patronage351 of the “purer forms of Christianity” (which in its naive form of church-building amused Mrs. Gould) was looked upon by his fellow-citizens as the manifestation352 of a pious353 and humble354 spirit. But in his own circles of the financial world the taking up of such a thing as the San Tome mine was regarded with respect, indeed, but rather as a subject for discreet jocularity. It was a great man’s caprice. In the great Holroyd building (an enormous pile of iron, glass, and blocks of stone at the corner of two streets, cobwebbed aloft by the radiation of telegraph wires) the heads of principal departments exchanged humorous glances, which meant that they were not let into the secrets of the San Tome business. The Costaguana mail (it was never large — one fairly heavy envelope) was taken unopened straight into the great man’s room, and no instructions dealing355 with it had ever been issued thence. The office whispered that he answered personally — and not by dictation either, but actually writing in his own hand, with pen and ink, and, it was to be supposed, taking a copy in his own private press copy-book, inaccessible to profane356 eyes. Some scornful young men, insignificant357 pieces of minor358 machinery359 in that eleven-storey-high workshop of great affairs, expressed frankly their private opinion that the great chief had done at last something silly, and was ashamed of his folly360; others, elderly and insignificant, but full of romantic reverence361 for the business that had devoured362 their best years, used to mutter darkly and knowingly that this was a portentous363 sign; that the Holroyd connection meant by-and-by to get hold of the whole Republic of Costaguana, lock, stock, and barrel. But, in fact, the hobby theory was the right one. It interested the great man to attend personally to the San Tome mine; it interested him so much that he allowed this hobby to give a direction to the first complete holiday he had taken for quite a startling number of years. He was not running a great enterprise there; no mere railway board or industrial corporation. He was running a man! A success would have pleased him very much on refreshingly364 novel grounds; but, on the other side of the same feeling, it was incumbent365 upon him to cast it off utterly366 at the first sign of failure. A man may be thrown off. The papers had unfortunately trumpeted367 all over the land his journey to Costaguana. If he was pleased at the way Charles Gould was going on, he infused an added grimness into his assurances of support. Even at the very last interview, half an hour or so before he rolled out of the patio, hat in hand, behind Mrs. Gould’s white mules, he had said in Charles’s room —
“You go ahead in your own way, and I shall know how to help you as long as you hold your own. But you may rest assured that in a given case we shall know how to drop you in time.”
To this Charles Gould’s only answer had been: “You may begin sending out the machinery as soon as you like.”
And the great man had liked this imperturbable368 assurance. The secret of it was that to Charles Gould’s mind these uncompromising terms were agreeable. Like this the mine preserved its identity, with which he had endowed it as a boy; and it remained dependent on himself alone. It was a serious affair, and he, too, took it grimly.
“Of course,” he said to his wife, alluding369 to this last conversation with the departed guest, while they walked slowly up and down the corredor, followed by the irritated eye of the parrot —“of course, a man of that sort can take up a thing or drop it when he likes. He will suffer from no sense of defeat. He may have to give in, or he may have to die to-morrow, but the great silver and iron interests will survive, and some day will get hold of Costaguana along with the rest of the world.”
They had stopped near the cage. The parrot, catching370 the sound of a word belonging to his vocabulary, was moved to interfere343. Parrots are very human.
“Viva Costaguana!” he shrieked371, with intense self-assertion, and, instantly ruffling372 up his feathers, assumed an air of puffed-up somnolence373 behind the glittering wires.
“And do you believe that, Charley?” Mrs. Gould asked. “This seems to me most awful materialism, and —”
“My dear, it’s nothing to me,” interrupted her husband, in a reasonable tone. “I make use of what I see. What’s it to me whether his talk is the voice of destiny or simply a bit of clap-trap eloquence? There’s a good deal of eloquence of one sort or another produced in both Americas. The air of the New World seems favourable to the art of declamation374. Have you forgotten how dear Avellanos can hold forth375 for hours here —?”
“Oh, but that’s different,” protested Mrs. Gould, almost shocked. The allusion376 was not to the point. Don Jose was a dear good man, who talked very well, and was enthusiastic about the greatness of the San Tome mine. “How can you compare them, Charles?” she exclaimed, reproachfully. “He has suffered — and yet he hopes.”
The working competence377 of men — which she never questioned — was very surprising to Mrs. Gould, because upon so many obvious issues they showed themselves strangely muddle-headed.
Charles Gould, with a careworn378 calmness which secured for him at once his wife’s anxious sympathy, assured her that he was not comparing. He was an American himself, after all, and perhaps he could understand both kinds of eloquence —“if it were worth while to try,” he added, grimly. But he had breathed the air of England longer than any of his people had done for three generations, and really he begged to be excused. His poor father could be eloquent379, too. And he asked his wife whether she remembered a passage in one of his father’s last letters where Mr. Gould had expressed the conviction that “God looked wrathfully at these countries, or else He would let some ray of hope fall through a rift195 in the appalling380 darkness of intrigue169, bloodshed, and crime that hung over the Queen of Continents.”
Mrs. Gould had not forgotten. “You read it to me, Charley,” she murmured. “It was a striking pronouncement. How deeply your father must have felt its terrible sadness!”
“He did not like to be robbed. It exasperated381 him,” said Charles Gould. “But the image will serve well enough. What is wanted here is law, good faith, order, security. Any one can declaim about these things, but I pin my faith to material interests. Only let the material interests once get a firm footing, and they are bound to impose the conditions on which alone they can continue to exist. That’s how your money-making is justified382 here in the face of lawlessness and disorder383. It is justified because the security which it demands must be shared with an oppressed people. A better justice will come afterwards. That’s your ray of hope.” His arm pressed her slight form closer to his side for a moment. “And who knows whether in that sense even the San Tome mine may not become that little rift in the darkness which poor father despaired of ever seeing?”
She glanced up at him with admiration384. He was competent; he had given a vast shape to the vagueness of her unselfish ambitions.
“Charley,” she said, “you are splendidly disobedient.”
He left her suddenly in the corredor to go and get his hat, a soft, grey sombrero, an article of national costume which combined unexpectedly well with his English get-up. He came back, a riding-whip under his arm, buttoning up a dogskin glove; his face reflected the resolute385 nature of his thoughts. His wife had waited for him at the head of the stairs, and before he gave her the parting kiss he finished the conversation —
“What should be perfectly clear to us,” he said, “is the fact that there is no going back. Where could we begin life afresh? We are in now for all that there is in us.”
He bent over her upturned face very tenderly and a little remorsefully386. Charles Gould was competent because he had no illusions. The Gould Concession had to fight for life with such weapons as could be found at once in the mire387 of a corruption388 that was so universal as almost to lose its significance. He was prepared to stoop for his weapons. For a moment he felt as if the silver mine, which had killed his father, had decoyed him further than he meant to go; and with the roundabout logic389 of emotions, he felt that the worthiness390 of his life was bound up with success. There was no going back.
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1
invaluable
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| adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的 | |
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legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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3
plumed
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| 饰有羽毛的 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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6
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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factotum
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| n.杂役；听差 | |
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8
prodigy
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| n.惊人的事物，奇迹，神童，天才，预兆 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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urn
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| n.（有座脚的）瓮；坟墓；骨灰瓮 | |
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12
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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13
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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15
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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16
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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17
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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18
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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19
fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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20
adorning
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| 修饰，装饰物 | |
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21
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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22
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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23
expended
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| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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24
concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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25
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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26
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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27
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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28
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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29
dispensed
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| v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 )；施与；配（药） | |
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30
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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31
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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32
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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33
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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34
liberator
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| 解放者 | |
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35
saviours
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| n.救助者( saviour的名词复数 )；救星；救世主；耶稣基督 | |
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36
federation
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| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
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37
apotheosis
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| n.神圣之理想；美化；颂扬 | |
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38
nave
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| n.教堂的中部；本堂 | |
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39
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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40
rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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41
batch
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| n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量 | |
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42
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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43
centaur
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| n.人首马身的怪物 | |
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44
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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45
vestige
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| n.痕迹，遗迹，残余 | |
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46
royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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47
equestrian
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| adj.骑马的；n.马术 | |
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48
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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49
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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50
reining
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| 勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的现在分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理 | |
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51
effigy
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| n.肖像 | |
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52
saluting
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的现在分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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53
poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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54
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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55
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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56
puerile
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| adj.幼稚的，儿童的 | |
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57
clench
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| vt.捏紧（拳头等），咬紧（牙齿等），紧紧握住 | |
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58
exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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59
atrocity
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| n.残暴，暴行 | |
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60
naive
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| adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的 | |
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61
pretences
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| n.假装( pretence的名词复数 )；作假；自命；自称 | |
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62
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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63
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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64
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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65
untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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66
indignities
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| n.侮辱，轻蔑( indignity的名词复数 ) | |
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67
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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68
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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69
patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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70
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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71
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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72
patio
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| n.庭院，平台 | |
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73
administrator
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| n.经营管理者，行政官员 | |
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74
rite
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| n.典礼，惯例，习俗 | |
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75
complacent
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| adj.自满的；自鸣得意的 | |
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76
virtuosity
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| n.精湛技巧 | |
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oratorial
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| adj.演说的，雄辩的 | |
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78
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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79
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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80
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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81
expatiate
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| v.细说，详述 | |
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82
backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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83
dwarfed
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| vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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84
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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85
gorged
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| v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 )；作呕 | |
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86
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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87
lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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88
perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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89
tinted
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| adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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91
porcelain
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| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
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92
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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93
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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corpses
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| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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95
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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96
perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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97
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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98
incited
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| 刺激，激励，煽动( incite的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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99
confiscation
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| n. 没收, 充公, 征收 | |
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100
incensed
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| 盛怒的 | |
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101
sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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102
impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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103
clemency
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| n.温和，仁慈，宽厚 | |
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104
reverts
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| 恢复( revert的第三人称单数 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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105
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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106
sanely
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| ad.神志清楚地 | |
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107
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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108
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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109
versed
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| adj. 精通，熟练 | |
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110
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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111
stipulated
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| vt.& vi.规定；约定adj.[法]合同规定的 | |
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112
royalties
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| 特许权使用费 | |
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113
entreaties
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| n.恳求，乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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114
inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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115
vestiges
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| 残余部分( vestige的名词复数 )； 遗迹； 痕迹； 毫不 | |
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116
charred
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| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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117
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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118
thorny
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| adj.多刺的，棘手的 | |
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119
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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120
exasperate
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| v.激怒，使（疾病）加剧，使恶化 | |
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121
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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122
insomnia
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| n.失眠，失眠症 | |
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123
pecuniary
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| adj.金钱的；金钱上的 | |
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124
applicant
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| n.申请人，求职者，请求者 | |
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125
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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126
malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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127
bribery
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| n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿 | |
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128
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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130
tout
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| v.推销，招徕；兜售；吹捧，劝诱 | |
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131
lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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132
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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133
despondently
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| adv.沮丧地，意志消沉地 | |
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134
intonation
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| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
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135
orphaned
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| [计][修]孤立 | |
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136
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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137
carmine
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| n.深红色，洋红色 | |
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138
deplored
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| v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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139
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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140
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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141
vampires
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|
| n.吸血鬼( vampire的名词复数 )；吸血蝠；高利贷者；（舞台上的）活板门 | |
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142
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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143
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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144
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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145
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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146
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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147
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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148
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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149
incompetent
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| adj.无能力的，不能胜任的 | |
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150
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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151
civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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152
immutably
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| adv.不变地，永恒地 | |
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153
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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154
gratuity
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| n.赏钱，小费 | |
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155
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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156
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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157
perverted
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| adj.不正当的v.滥用( pervert的过去式和过去分词 )；腐蚀；败坏；使堕落 | |
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158
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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159
subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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160
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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161
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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162
persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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163
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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164
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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165
implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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166
tainted
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| adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏 | |
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167
infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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168
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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169
intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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170
brigands
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| n.土匪，强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
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171
blighted
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| adj.枯萎的，摧毁的 | |
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172
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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173
iniquitous
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| adj.不公正的；邪恶的；高得出奇的 | |
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174
ardently
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| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
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175
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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176
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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177
plaintive
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|
| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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178
enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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179
pointed
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|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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180
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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181
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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182
durable
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|
| adj.持久的，耐久的 | |
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183
anguish
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|
| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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184
enchantment
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| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
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185
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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186
peculiarities
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|
| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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187
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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188
remarkable
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|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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189
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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190
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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191
pinnacle
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| n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰 | |
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192
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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193
unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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194
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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195
rift
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| n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入 | |
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196
relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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197
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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198
fowls
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|
| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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199
tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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200
quarries
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| n.（采）石场( quarry的名词复数 )；猎物（指鸟，兽等）；方形石；（格窗等的）方形玻璃v.从采石场采得( quarry的第三人称单数 )；从（书本等中）努力发掘（资料等）；在采石场采石 | |
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201
sincerity
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|
| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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202
mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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203
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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204
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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205
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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206
ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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207
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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208
penetrating
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|
| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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209
blurted
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| v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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210
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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211
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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212
chestnuts
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| n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马 | |
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213
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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214
unconditionally
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| adv.无条件地 | |
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215
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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216
deferential
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| adj. 敬意的，恭敬的 | |
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217
fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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218
irrational
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| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
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219
corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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220
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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221
incertitude
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| n.疑惑，不确定 | |
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222
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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223
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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224
reassuringly
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| ad.安心，可靠 | |
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225
martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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226
crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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227
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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228
farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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229
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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230
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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231
sketching
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| n.草图 | |
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232
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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233
doorways
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| n.门口，门道( doorway的名词复数 ) | |
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234
turreted
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| a.(像炮塔般)旋转式的 | |
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235
rascally
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| adj. 无赖的，恶棍的 adv. 无赖地，卑鄙地 | |
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236
crucible
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| n.坩锅，严酷的考验 | |
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237
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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238
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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239
redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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240
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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241
poignant
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|
| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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242
discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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243
consolatory
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| adj.慰问的，可藉慰的 | |
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244
imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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245
mantle
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| n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红 | |
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246
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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247
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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248
vivacity
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| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
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249
sprightliness
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| n.愉快，快活 | |
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250
differentiation
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| n.区别，区分 | |
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251
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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252
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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253
demolition
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| n.破坏,毁坏,毁坏之遗迹 | |
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254
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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255
tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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256
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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257
virility
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| n.雄劲，丈夫气 | |
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258
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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259
reticent
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| adj.沉默寡言的；言不如意的 | |
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260
mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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261
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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262
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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263
niche
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| n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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264
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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265
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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266
cistern
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| n.贮水池 | |
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267
tangle
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|
| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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268
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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269
muffled
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|
| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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270
baker
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| n.面包师 | |
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271
raven
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|
| n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的 | |
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272
starched
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|
| adj.浆硬的，硬挺的，拘泥刻板的v.把（衣服、床单等）浆一浆( starch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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273
slant
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| v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向 | |
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274
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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275
sonorous
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|
| adj.响亮的，回响的；adv.圆润低沉地；感人地；n.感人，堂皇 | |
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276
gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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277
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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278
pompous
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|
| adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的 | |
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279
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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280
vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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281
judiciously
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| adv.明断地，明智而审慎地 | |
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282
ferociously
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| 野蛮地，残忍地 | |
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283
mellifluously
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| adj.声音甜美的，悦耳的 | |
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284
mobility
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| n.可动性，变动性，情感不定 | |
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285
strapping
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| adj. 魁伟的, 身材高大健壮的 n. 皮绳或皮带的材料, 裹伤胶带, 皮鞭 动词strap的现在分词形式 | |
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286
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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287
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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288
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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289
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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290
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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291
expressively
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| ad.表示(某事物)地；表达地 | |
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292
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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293
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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294
influential
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|
| adj.有影响的，有权势的 | |
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295
marvelling
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|
| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的现在分词 ) | |
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296
munificence
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| n.宽宏大量，慷慨给与 | |
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297
scrupulously
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|
| adv.一丝不苟地；小心翼翼地，多顾虑地 | |
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298
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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299
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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300
vaguely
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|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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301
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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302
gratitude
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|
| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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303
miserably
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|
| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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304
prohibition
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| n.禁止；禁令，禁律 | |
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305
deliberately
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|
| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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306
downwards
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|
| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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307
jingled
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| 喝醉的 | |
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308
cape
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|
| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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309
askew
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| adv.斜地；adj.歪斜的 | |
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310
rehabilitation
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| n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位 | |
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311
elude
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| v.躲避，困惑 | |
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312
unnatural
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|
| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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313
materialism
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| n.［哲］唯物主义，唯物论；物质至上 | |
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314
contagious
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|
| adj.传染性的，有感染力的 | |
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315
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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316
sanguine
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|
| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
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317
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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318
impulsive
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|
| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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319
lucidly
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|
| adv.清透地，透明地 | |
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320
devastating
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|
| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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321
horrid
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|
| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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322
eyebrows
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|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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323
scotch
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|
| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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324
temperament
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|
| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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325
liking
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|
| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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326
journalism
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| n.新闻工作，报业 | |
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327
permanently
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|
| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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328
favourable
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|
| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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329
discreet
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|
| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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330
assent
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|
| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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331
agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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332
insignificance
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|
| n.不重要；无价值；无意义 | |
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333
prodigious
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|
| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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334
humiliated
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| 感到羞愧的 | |
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335
attainable
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| a.可达到的，可获得的 | |
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336
concessions
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|
| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
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337
yearned
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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338
consuls
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| 领事( consul的名词复数 )； （古罗马共和国时期）执政官 （古罗马共和国及其军队的最高首长，同时共有两位，每年选举一次） | |
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339
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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340
conscientious
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|
| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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341
conspiracies
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| n.阴谋，密谋( conspiracy的名词复数 ) | |
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342
factions
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| 组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
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343
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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344
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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345
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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346
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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347
alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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348
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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349
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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350
lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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351
patronage
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|
| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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352
manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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353
pious
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|
| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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354
humble
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|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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355
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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356
profane
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|
| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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357
insignificant
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|
| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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358
minor
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|
| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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359
machinery
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|
| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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360
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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361
reverence
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|
| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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362
devoured
|
|
| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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363
portentous
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|
| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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364
refreshingly
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|
| adv.清爽地，有精神地 | |
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365
incumbent
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|
| adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的 | |
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366
utterly
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|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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367
trumpeted
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|
| 大声说出或宣告（trumpet的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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368
imperturbable
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|
| adj.镇静的 | |
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369
alluding
|
|
| 提及，暗指( allude的现在分词 ) | |
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370
catching
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|
| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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371
shrieked
|
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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372
ruffling
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| 弄皱( ruffle的现在分词 )； 弄乱； 激怒； 扰乱 | |
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373
somnolence
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| n.想睡，梦幻；欲寐；嗜睡；嗜眠 | |
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374
declamation
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| n. 雄辩，高调 | |
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375
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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376
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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377
competence
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| n.能力，胜任，称职 | |
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378
careworn
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| adj.疲倦的，饱经忧患的 | |
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379
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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380
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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381
exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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382
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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383
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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384
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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385
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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386
remorsefully
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| adv.极为懊悔地 | |
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387
mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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388
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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389
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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390
worthiness
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| 价值，值得 | |
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