Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

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

"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 contemplated her from the height of his long legs with a
visible appreciation 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
influential 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, marvelling inwardly at the
mobility of her physiognomy. "All over the country. He's famous
for that sort of munificence." "Oh, he didn't boast," Mrs. Gould
declared, scrupulously. "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 touching."

"He's at the head of immense silver and iron interests," Charles
Gould observed.