Page:Nostromo (1904).djvu/579

 padre blowing up systematically the San Tomé mine, uttering a pious exclamation at every bang, and taking up handfuls of snuff between the explosions—the heroic Padre Romàn says that he is not afraid of the harm Holroyd's missionaries can do to his flock, as long as he is alive."

Mrs. Gould shuddered a little at the allusion to the destruction that had come so near to the San Tomé mine...

"Ah, but you, old friend?"

"I did the work I was fit for."

"You faced the most cruel dangers of all. Something more than death."

"No, Mrs. Gould! Only death—by hanging. And I am rewarded beyond my deserts."

Noticing Mrs. Gould's gaze fixed upon him, he dropped his eyes.

"I've made my career—as you see," said the Inspector-General of State Hospitals, taking up lightly the lapels of his superfine black coat. The doctor's self-respect, marked inwardly by the almost complete disappearance from his dreams of Father Beron, appeared visibly in what, by contrast with former carelessness, seemed an immoderate cult of personal appearance. Carried out within severe limits of form and color, and in perpetual freshness, this change of apparel gave to Dr. Monygham an air at the same time professional and festive; while his gait and the unchanged crabbed character of his face acquired from it a startling force of incongruity.

"Yes," he went on. "We all had our rewards—the engineer-in-chief, Captain Mitchell—"