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He affirmed and reaffirmed this resolution in the
drawing-rooms of Sta. Marta, in a soft and implacable voice, and
with such malicious glances that Mr. Gould's best friends advised him
earnestly to attempt no bribery to get the matter dropped. It would have
been useless. Indeed, it would not have been a very safe proceeding.
Such was also the opinion of a stout, loud-voiced lady of French
extraction, the daughter, she said, of an officer of high rank (_officier
superieur de l'armee_), who was accommodated with lodgings within the
walls of a secularized convent next door to the Ministry of Finance.
That florid person, when approached on behalf of Mr. Gould in a proper
manner, and with a suitable present, shook her head despondently. She
was good-natured, and her despondency was genuine. She imagined she
could not take money in consideration of something she could not
accomplish. The friend of Mr. Gould, charged with the delicate mission,
used to say afterwards that she was the only honest person closely or
remotely connected with the Government he had ever met. "No go," she
had said with a cavalier, husky intonation which was natural to her, and
using turns of expression more suitable to a child of parents unknown
than to the orphaned daughter of a general officer. "No; it's no go. _Pas
moyen, mon garcon. C'est dommage, tout de meme. Ah! zut! Je ne vole
pas mon monde. Je ne suis pas ministre--moi! Vous pouvez emporter votre
petit sac_."
For a moment, biting her carmine lip, she deplored inwardly the tyranny
of the rigid principles governing the sale of her influence in high
places. Then, significantly, and with a touch of impatience, "_Allez_,"
she added, "_et dites bien a votre bonhomme--entendez-vous?--qu'il faut
avaler la pilule_."
After such a warning there was nothing for it but to sign and pay.
Mr. Gould had swallowed the pill, and it was as though it had been
compounded of some subtle poison that acted directly on his brain. He
became at once mine-ridden, and as he was well read in light literature
it took to his mind the form of the Old Man of the Sea fastened upon his
shoulders. He also began to dream of vampires. Mr. Gould exaggerated
to himself the disadvantages of his new position, because he viewed it
emotionally. His position in Costaguana was no worse than before. But
man is a desperately conservative creature, and the extravagant novelty
of this outrage upon his purse distressed his sensibilities. Everybody
around him was being robbed by the grotesque and murderous bands that
played their game of governments and revolutions after the death of
Guzman Bento. His experience had taught him that, however short
the plunder might fall of their legitimate expectations, no gang in
possession of the Presidential Palace would be so incompetent as to
suffer itself to be baffled by the want of a pretext. The first casual
colonel of the barefooted army of scarecrows that came along was able to
expose with force and precision to any mere civilian his titles to a sum
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