Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART FIRST: THE SILVER OF THE MINE 6. CHAPTER SIX (continued)

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 quarries, 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 acting and thinking
in her sight. This is the true method of sincerity. 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 mused aloud, as if to himself. And when she
wondered frankly that a man of character should devote his
energies to plotting and intrigues, 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.