Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART THIRD: THE LIGHTHOUSE 12. CHAPTER TWELVE (continued)

On that impenetrable background, obliterating the lofty mountains
by the seaboard, she saw the slave of the San Tome silver, as if
by an extraordinary power of a miracle. She accepted his return
as if henceforth the world could hold no surprise for all
eternity.

She rose, compelled and rigid, and began to speak long before the
light from within fell upon the face of the approaching man.

"You have come back to carry me off. It is well! Open thy arms,
Giovanni, my lover. I am coming."

His prudent footsteps stopped, and with his eyes glistening
wildly, he spoke in a harsh voice:

"Not yet. I must grow rich slowly." . . . A threatening note came
into his tone. "Do not forget that you have a thief for your
lover."

"Yes! Yes!" she whispered, hastily. "Come nearer! Listen! Do not
give me up, Giovanni! Never, never! . . . I will be patient! . . ."

Her form drooped consolingly over the low casement towards the
slave of the unlawful treasure. The light in the room went out,
and weighted with silver, the magnificent Capataz clasped her
round her white neck in the darkness of the gulf as a drowning
man clutches at a straw.