Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART FIRST: THE SILVER OF THE MINE 8. CHAPTER EIGHT (continued)

Charles Gould had his place next to a foreign envoy, who, in a
listless undertone, had been talking to him fitfully of hunting
and shooting. The well-nourished, pale face, with an eyeglass and
drooping yellow moustache, made the Senor Administrador appear by
contrast twice as sunbaked, more flaming red, a hundred times
more intensely and silently alive. Don Jose Avellanos touched
elbows with the other foreign diplomat, a dark man with a quiet,
watchful, self-confident demeanour, and a touch of reserve. All
etiquette being laid aside on the occasion, General Montero was
the only one there in full uniform, so stiff with embroideries in
front that his broad chest seemed protected by a cuirass of gold.
Sir John at the beginning had got away from high places for the
sake of sitting near Mrs. Gould.

The great financier was trying to express to her his grateful
sense of her hospitality and of his obligation to her husband's
"enormous influence in this part of the country," when she
interrupted him by a low "Hush!" The President was going to make
an informal pronouncement.

The Excellentissimo was on his legs. He said only a few words,
evidently deeply felt, and meant perhaps mostly for
Avellanos--his old friend--as to the necessity of unremitting
effort to secure the lasting welfare of the country emerging
after this last struggle, he hoped, into a period of peace and
material prosperity.

Mrs. Gould, listening to the mellow, slightly mournful voice,
looking at this rotund, dark, spectacled face, at the short body,
obese to the point of infirmity, thought that this man of
delicate and melancholy mind, physically almost a cripple, coming
out of his retirement into a dangerous strife at the call of his
fellows, had the right to speak with the authority of his
self-sacrifice. And yet she was made uneasy. He was more pathetic
than promising, this first civilian Chief of the State Costaguana
had ever known, pronouncing, glass in hand, his simple watchwords
of honesty, peace, respect for law, political good faith abroad
and at home--the safeguards of national honour.