Quotation from: Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard

Written by: Joseph Conrad


Don Juste, astonishingly changed by having shaved off altogether his
damaged beard, had lost with it nine-tenths of his outward dignity. Even
at that time of serious pre-occupation Charles Gould could not help
noting the revealed ineptitude in the aspect of the man. His companions
looked crestfallen and sleepy. One kept on passing the tip of his tongue
over his parched lips; the other's eyes strayed dully over the tiled
floor of the corredor, while Don Juste, standing a little in advance,
harangued the Senor Administrador of the San Tome mine. It was his firm
opinion that forms had to be observed. A new governor is always visited
by deputations from the Cabildo, which is the Municipal Council,
from the Consulado, the commercial Board, and it was proper that the
Provincial Assembly should send a deputation, too, if only to assert
the existence of parliamentary institutions. Don Juste proposed that Don
Carlos Gould, as the most prominent citizen of the province, should join
the Assembly's deputation. His position was exceptional, his personality
known through the length and breadth of the whole Republic. Official
courtesies must not be neglected, if they are gone through with a
bleeding heart. The acceptance of accomplished facts may save yet the
precious vestiges of parliamentary institutions. Don Juste's eyes glowed
dully; he believed in parliamentary institutions--and the convinced
drone of his voice lost itself in the stillness of the house like the
deep buzzing of some ponderous insect.

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