Quotation from: The Arrow of Gold

Written by: Joseph Conrad


I spent the next day with Dominic on board the little craft
watching the shipwrights at work on her deck. From the way they
went about their business those men must have been perfectly sane;
and I felt greatly refreshed by my company during the day.
Dominic, too, devoted himself to his business, but his taciturnity
was sardonic. Then I dropped in at the cafe and Madame Leonore's
loud "Eh, Signorino, here you are at last!" pleased me by its
resonant friendliness. But I found the sparkle of her black eyes
as she sat down for a moment opposite me while I was having my
drink rather difficult to bear. That man and that woman seemed to
know something. What did they know? At parting she pressed my
hand significantly. What did she mean? But I didn't feel offended
by these manifestations. The souls within these people's breasts
were not volatile in the manner of slightly scented and inflated
bladders. Neither had they the impervious skins which seem the
rule in the fine world that wants only to get on. Somehow they had
sensed that there was something wrong; and whatever impression they
might have formed for themselves I had the certitude that it would
not be for them a matter of grins at my expense.

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