Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
empty dwelling, her frankness would have had to
evade the question. It had come into her mind that for life to be large and full it must contain the care of the past and of the future in every passing mo- ment of the present. Our daily work must be done to the glory of the dead, and for the good of those who come after. She thought that, and sighed with- out opening her syes without moving at all. Mrs. Gould's face became set and rigid for a second, as if to receive, without flinching, a great wave of loneli- ness that swept over her head. And it came into her mind, too, that no one would ever ask her with solici- tude what she was thinking of. No one. No one, but perhaps the man who had just gone away. No; no one who could be answered with careless sincerity in the ideal perfection of confidence. The word "incorrigible" a word lately pronounced by Dr. Monygham floated into her still and sad im- mobility. Incorrigible in his devotion to the great silver mine was the SeƱor Administrador! Incorrigible in his hard, determined service of the material interests to which he had pinned his faith in the triumph of order and justice. Poor boy! She had a clear vision of the gray hairs on his temples. He was perfect- perfect. What more could she have expected? It was a colossal and lasting success; and love was only a short moment of forgetfulness, a short intoxication, whose delight one remembered with a sense of sad- ness, as if it had been a deep grief lived through. There was something inherent in the necessities of successful action which carried with it the moral deg-
radation of the idea. She saw the San Tome" moun-
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