Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART FIRST: THE SILVER OF THE MINE 4. CHAPTER FOUR (continued)

In the square of sunlight falling through the door Signora
Teresa, kneeling before the chair, had bowed her head, heavy with
a twisted mass of ebony hair streaked with silver, into the palm
of her hands. The black lace shawl she used to drape about her
face had dropped to the ground by her side. The two girls had got
up, hand-in-hand, in short skirts, their loose hair falling in
disorder. The younger had thrown her arm across her eyes, as if
afraid to face the light. Linda, with her hand on the other's
shoulder, stared fearlessly. Viola looked at his children. The
sun brought out the deep lines on his face, and, energetic in
expression, it had the immobility of a carving. It was impossible
to discover what he thought. Bushy grey eyebrows shaded his dark
glance.

"Well! And do you not pray like your mother?"

Linda pouted, advancing her red lips, which were almost too red;
but she had admirable eyes, brown, with a sparkle of gold in the
irises, full of intelligence and meaning, and so clear that they
seemed to throw a glow upon her thin, colourless face. There were
bronze glints in the sombre clusters of her hair, and the
eyelashes, long and coal black, made her complexion appear still
more pale.

"Mother is going to offer up a lot of candles in the church. She
always does when Nostromo has been away fighting. I shall have
some to carry up to the Chapel of the Madonna in the Cathedral."

She said all this quickly, with great assurance, in an animated,
penetrating voice. Then, giving her sister's shoulder a slight
shake, she added--

"And she will be made to carry one, too!"

"Why made?" inquired Giorgio, gravely. "Does she not want to?"

"She is timid," said Linda, with a little burst of laughter.
"People notice her fair hair as she goes along with us. They call
out after her, 'Look at the Rubia! Look at the Rubiacita!' They
call out in the streets. She is timid."

"And you? You are not timid--eh?" the father pronounced, slowly.