Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
of tiinU'r from 1'ujjet Sound for the railway. He
knew her iin-n, in his .|uahtv of foreman of all the work doiu- in the harlx>r hi- had U-en ahle to oblige her tain in some small matter relating to the filling of his water-tanks. Bronzed, l>laek-whiskere<l, and stately. with the impressive gravity of a man too powerful to unbend, he had l>een invited more than once to drink a glass of Italian vermouth in her cabin. It was well known among ship-masters trading along the seaboard that, as a matter of sound policy, the capataz of the cargadores in Sulaco should be propitiated by small eivilities, which he seemed to expect as his due. For in truth, being implicitly trusted by Captain Mitchell, he had, as sometx>dy said, the whole harbor in his pocket. For the rest, an cxecllent fellow, quite straight- forward, everybody agreed. Since everything seemed lost in Sulaco (and that was the feeling of his waking), the idea of leaving the country altogether had presented itself to Nostromo. In that ship they would have given him shelter and a passage, and have landed him in Italy ultimately. At that thought he had seen, like the beginning of another dream, a vision of steep and tideless shores, with dark pines on the heights and white houses low down near a very blue sea. He saw the quays of a big port where the coasting feluccas, with their lateen-sails outspread like motionless wings, enter, gliding silently between the end of long moles of squared blocks that project angularly towards each other, hugging a cluster of shipping, to the superb bosom of a hill covered with palaces. He remembered these sights n^t without
sonic filial emotion, though he had been habitually and
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