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CHAPTER V
The Gould carriage was the fi rst to return from the harbour to the empty town. On the ancient pavement, laid out in
patterns, sunk into ruts and holes, the portly Ignacio, mindful of the springs of the Parisian-built landau, had pulled
up to a walk, and Decoud in his corner contemplated moodily
the inner aspect of the gate. The squat turreted sides held up
between them a mass of masonry with bunches of grass growingat the top, and a grey, heavily scrolled, armorial shield of
stone above the apex of the arch with the arms of Spain nearly
smoothed out as if in readiness for some new device typical of
the impending progress.
The explosive noise of the railway trucks seemed to augment Decoud’s irritation. He muttered something to himself, then began to talk aloud in curt, angry phrases thrownat the silence of the two women. They did not lookat himat all;
while D on Jose, with his semi-translucent, waxy complexion,
overshadowed by the soft grey hat, swayed a little to the jolts of
the carriage by the side of Mrs. Gould.
«This sound puts a new edge on a very old truth».
Decoud spoke in French, perhaps because of Ignacio on
the box above him; the old coachman, with his broad back fi ll-
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JOSEPH CONRAD
ing a short, silver-braided jacket, had a big pair of ears, whose
thick rims stood well away from his cropped head.
«Yes, the noise outside the city wall is new, but the principle is old».
He ruminated his discontent for a while, then began afresh
with a sidelong glanceat Antonia –
«No, but just imagine our forefathers in morions and corselets drawn up outside this gate, and a band of adventurers
just landed from their ships in the harbour there. Thieves, of
course. Speculators, too. Their expeditions, each one, were
the speculations of grave and reverend persons in England.
That is history, as that absurd sailor Mitchell is always saying».
«Mitchell’s arrangements for the embarkati on of the troops
were excellent!» exclaimed D on Jose.
«That! – that! oh, that’s really the work of that Genoese
seaman! But to return to my noises; there used to be in the old
days the sound of trumpets outside that gate. War trumpets!
I’m sure they were trumpets. I have read somewhere that
Drake, who was the greatest of these men, used to dine alone
in his cabin on board ship to the sound of trumpets. In those
days this town was full of wealth. Those men came to take it.
Now the whole land is like a treasure-house, and all these
people are breaking into it, whilst we are cutting each other’s
throats. The only thing that keeps them out is mutual jealousy.
But they’ll come to an agreement some day – and by the time
we’ve settled our quarrels and become decent and honourable,
there’ll be nothing left for us. It has always been the same.
We are a wonderful people, but it has always been our fate to
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NOSTROMO
be» – he did not say «robbed», but added, after a pause – «exploited!»
Mrs. Gould said, «Oh, this is unjust!» And Antonia interjected, «Don’t answer him, Emilia. He is attacking me».
«You surely do not think I was attacking D on Carlos!»
Decoud answered.
And then the carriage stopped before the door of
the Casa Gould. The young man offered his hand to the ladies.
They went in fi rst together; D on Jose walked by the side of
Decoud, and the gouty old porter tottered after them with
some light wraps on his arm.
D on Jose slipped his hand under the arm of the journalist of Sulaco.
«The Porvenir must have a long and confi dent article
up on Barrios and the irresistibleness of his army of Cayta!
The moral effect should be kept up in the country. We must
cable encouraging extracts to Europe and the United States to
maintain a favourable impressi on abroad».
Decoud muttered, «Oh, yes, we must comfort our friends,
the speculators».
The long open gallery was in shadow, with its screen of
plants in vases along the balustrade, holding out motionless blossoms, and all the glass doors of the reception-rooms
thrown open. A jingle of spurs died outat the further end.
Basilio, standing aside against the wall, said in a soft tone to
the passing ladies, «The Senor Administrador is just back from
the mountain».
In the great sala, with its groups of ancient Spanish and
modern European furniture making as if different centres un-
203
JOSEPH CONRAD
der the high white spread of the ceiling, the silver and porcelain of the tea-service gleamed among a cluster of dwarf chairs,
like a bit of a lady’s boudoir, putting in a note of feminine and
intimate delicacy.
D on Jose in his rocking-chair placed his hat on his lap, and
Decoud walked up and down the whole length of the room,
passing between tables loaded with knick-knacks and almost
disappearing behind the high backs of leathern sofas. He was
thinking of the angry face of Antonia; he was confi dent that he
would make his peace with her. He had not stayed in Sulaco to
quarrel with Antonia.
Martin Decoud was angry with himself. All he saw and
heard going on around him exasperated the preconceived
views of his European civilization. To contemplate revolutions
from the distance of the Parisian Boulevards was quite another
matter. Here on the spot it was not possible to dismiss their
tragic comedy with the expression, «Quelle farce! »
The reality of the political action, such as it was, seemed
closer, and acquired poignancy by Antonia’s belief in the cause.
Its crudeness hurt his feelings. He was surprisedat his own
sensitiveness.
«I suppose I am more of a Costaguanero than I would have
believed possible», he thought to himself.
His disdain grew like a reacti on of his scepticism against
the acti on into which he was forced by his infatuati on for
Antonia. He soothed himself by saying he was not a patriot,
but a lover.
The ladies came in bareheaded, and Mrs. Gould sank
low before the little tea-table. Antonia took up her usual
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NOSTROMO
placeat the recepti on hour – the corner of a leathern couch,
with a rigid grace in her pose and a fan in her hand. Decoud,
swerving from the straight line of his march, came to lean over
the high back of her seat.
For a long time he talked into her ear from behind, softly, with a half smile and an air of apologetic familiarity. Her
fan lay half grasped on her knees. She never lookedat him. His
rapid utterance grew more and more insistent and caressing.
At last he ventured a slight laugh.
«No, really. You must forgive me. One must be serious
sometimes». He paused. She turned her head a little; her blue
eyes glided slowly towards him, slightly upwards, mollifi ed
and questioning.
«You can’t think I am serious when I call Montero a gran’
bestia every second day in the Porvenir? That is not a serious
occupation. No occupati on is serious, not even when a bullet
through the heart is the penalty of failure!»
Her hand closed fi rmly on her fan.
«Some reason, you understand, I mean some sense, may
creep into thinking; some glimpse of truth. I mean some effective truth, for which there is no room in politics or journalism.
I happen to have said what I thought. And you are angry! If you
do me the kindness to think a little you will see that I spoke
like a patriot».
She opened her red lips for the fi rst time, not unkindly.
«Yes, but you never see the aim. Men must be used as they
are. I suppose nobody is really disinterested, unless, perhaps,
you, D on Martin».
205
JOSEPH CONRAD
«God forbid! It’s the last thing I should like you to believe of
me». He spoke lightly, and paused.
She began to fan herself with a slow movement without
raising her hand. After a time he whispered passionately –
«Antonia!»
She smiled, and extended her hand after the English manner towards Charles Gould, who was bowing before her;
while Decoud, with his elbows spread on the back of the sofa,
dropped his eyes and murmured, «Bonjour».
The Senor Administrador of the San Tome mine bent over
his wife for a moment. They exchanged a few words, of which
only the phrase, «The greatest enthusiasm», pronounced by
Mrs. Gould, could be heard.
«Yes», Decoud began in a murmur. «Even he!»
«This is sheer calumny», said Antonia, not very severely.
«You just ask him to throw his mine into the melting-pot
for the great cause», Decoud whispered.
D on Jose had raised his voice. He rubbed his hands cheerily. The excellent aspect of the troops and the great quantity of new deadly rifl es on the shoulders of those brave men
seemed to fi ll him with an ecstatic confi dence.
Charles Gould, very tall and thin before his chair, listened,
but nothing could be discovered in his face except a kind and
deferential attention.
Meantime, Antonia had risen, and, crossing the room,
stood looking out of one of the three long windows giving on
the street. Decoud followed her. The window was thrown
open, and he leaned against the thickness of the wall. The long
folds of the damask curtain, falling straight from the broad
206
NOSTROMO
brass cornice, hid him partly from the room. He folded his
arms on his breast, and looked steadilyat Antonia’s profi le.
The people returning from the harbour fi lled the pavements; the shuffl e of sandals and a low murmur of voices ascended to the window. Now and then a coach rolled slowly
along the disjointed roadway of the Calle de la Constitucion.
There were not many private carriages in Sulaco;at the most
crowded hour on the Alameda they could be counted with one
glance of the eye. The great family arks swayed on high leathern springs, full of pretty powdered faces in which the eyes
looked intensely alive and black. And fi rst D on Juste Lopez,
the President of the Provincial Assembly, passed with his three
lovely daughters, solemn in a black frock-coat and stiff white
tie, as when directing a debate from a high tribune. Though
they all raised their eyes, Antonia did not make the usual
greeting gesture of a fl uttered hand, and they affected not to
see the two young people, Costaguaneros with European manners, whose eccentricities were discussed behind the barred
windows of the fi rst families in Sulaco. And then the widowed
Senora Gavilaso de Valdes rolled by, handsome and dignifi ed,
in a great machine in which she used to travel to and from her
country house, surrounded by an armed retinue in leather suits
and big sombreros, with carbinesat the bows of their saddles.
She was a woman of most distinguished family, proud, rich,
and kind-hearted. Her second son, Jaime, had just gone off on
the Staff of Barrios. The eldest, a worthless fellow of a moody
disposition, fi lled Sulaco with the noise of his dissipations, and
gambled heavilyat the club. The two youngest boys, with yellow Ribierist cockades in their caps, sat on the front seat. She,
207
JOSEPH CONRAD
too, affected not to see the Senor Decoud talking publicly with
Antonia in defi ance of every convention. And he not even her
novio as far as the world knew! Though, even in that case, it
would have been scandal enough. But the dignifi ed old lady,
respected and admired by the fi rst families, would have been
still more shocked if she could have heard the words they were
exchanging.
«Did you say I lost sight of the aim? I have only one aim in
the world».
She made an almost imperceptible negative movement of
her head, still staring across the streetat the Avellanos’s house,
grey, marked with decay, and with ir on bars like a prison.
«And it would be so easy of attainment», he continued,
«this aim which, whether knowingly or not, I have always had
in my heart – ever since the day when you snubbed me so horribly once in Paris, you remember».
A slight smile seemed to move the corner of the lip that
was on his side.
«You know you were a very terrible person, a sort of Charlotte Corday in a schoolgirl’s dress; a ferocious patriot. I suppose you would have stuck a knife into Guzman Bento?»
She interrupted him. «You do me too much honour».
«At any rate», he said, changing suddenly to a tone of bitter
levity, «you would have sent me to stab him without compunction».
«Ah, par exemple! » she murmured in a shocked tone.
«Well», he argued, mockingly, «you do keep me here writing deadly nonsense. Deadly to me! It has already killed my
self-respect. And you may imagine», he continued, his tone
208
NOSTROMO
passing into light banter, «that Montero, should he be successful, would get even with me in the only way such a brute
can get even with a man of intelligence who condescends to
call him a gran’ bestia three times a week. It’s a sort of intellectual death; but there is the other one in the background for
a journalist of my ability».
«If he is successful!» said Antonia, thoughtfully.
«You seem satisfi ed to see my life hang on a thread»,
Decoud replied, with a broad smile. «And the other Montero,
the ‘my trusted brother’ of the proclamations, the guerrillero – haven’t I written that he was taking the guests’ overcoats
and changing plates in Parisat our Legati on in the intervals of
spying on our refugees there, in the time of Rojas? He will
wash out that sacred truth in blood. In my blood! Why do you
look annoyed? This is simply a bit of the biography of one of
our great men. What do you think he will do to me? There is
a certain convent wall round the corner of the Plaza, opposite
the door of the Bull Ring. You know? Opposite the door with
the inscription, Intrada de la Sombra .’ Appropriate, perhaps!
That’s where the uncle of our host gave up his Anglo-SouthAmerican soul. And, note, he might have run away. A man who
has fought with weapons may run away. You might have let me
go with Barrios if you had cared for me. I would have carried
one of those rifl es, in which D on Jose believes, with the greatest satisfaction, in the ranks of poor peons and Indios, that
know nothing either of reas on or politics. The most forlorn
hope in the most forlorn army on earth would have been safer
than that for which you made me stay here. When you make
209
JOSEPH CONRAD
war you may retreat, but not when you spend your time in
inciting poor ignorant fools to kill and to die».
His tone remained light, and as if unaware of his presence
she stood motionless, her hands clasped lightly, the fan hanging down from her interlaced fi ngers. He waited for a while,
and then –
«I shall go to the wall», he said, with a sort of jocular desperation.
Even that declarati on did not make her lookat him. Her
head remained still, her eyes fi xed up on the house of the Avellanos, whose chipped pilasters, broken cornices, the whole degradati on of dignity was hidden now by the gathering dusk of
the street. In her whole fi gure her lips alone moved, forming
the words –
«Martin, you will make me cry».
He remained silent for a minute, startled, as if overwhelmed by a sort of awed happiness, with the lines of
the mocking smile still stiffened about his mouth, and incredulous surprise in his eyes. The value of a sentence is in
the personality which utters it, for nothing new can be said by
man or woman; and those were the last words, it seemed to
him, that could ever have been spoken by Antonia. He had
never made it up with her so completely in all their intercourse of small encounters; but even before she had time to
turn towards him, which she did slowly with a rigid grace, he
had begun to plead –
«My sister is only waiting to embrace you. My father is
transported with joy. I won’t say anything of my mother! Our
mothers were like sisters. There is the mail-boat for the south
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