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far back near an open window in the true Costaguana manner. The military
band happened to be braying operatic selections on the plaza just then,
and twice he raised his hand imperatively for silence in order to listen
to a favourite passage.
"Exquisite, delicious!" he murmured; while Charles Gould waited,
standing by with inscrutable patience. "Lucia, Lucia di Lammermoor! I am
passionate for music. It transports me. Ha! the divine--ha!--Mozart. Si!
divine . . . What is it you were saying?"
Of course, rumours had reached him already of the newcomer's intentions.
Besides, he had received an official warning from Sta. Marta. His manner
was intended simply to conceal his curiosity and impress his visitor.
But after he had locked up something valuable in the drawer of a large
writing-desk in a distant part of the room, he became very affable, and
walked back to his chair smartly.
"If you intend to build villages and assemble a population near the
mine, you shall require a decree of the Minister of the Interior for
that," he suggested in a business-like manner.
"I have already sent a memorial," said Charles Gould, steadily, "and I
reckon now confidently upon your Excellency's favourable conclusions."
The Excellency was a man of many moods. With the receipt of the money
a great mellowness had descended upon his simple soul. Unexpectedly he
fetched a deep sigh.
"Ah, Don Carlos! What we want is advanced men like you in the province.
The lethargy--the lethargy of these aristocrats! The want of public
spirit! The absence of all enterprise! I, with my profound studies in
Europe, you understand--"
With one hand thrust into his swelling bosom, he rose and fell on
his toes, and for ten minutes, almost without drawing breath, went on
hurling himself intellectually to the assault of Charles Gould's polite
silence; and when, stopping abruptly, he fell back into his chair,
it was as though he had been beaten off from a fortress. To save his
dignity he hastened to dismiss this silent man with a solemn
inclination of the head and the words, pronounced with moody, fatigued
condescension--
"You may depend upon my enlightened goodwill as long as your conduct as
a good citizen deserves it."
He took up a paper fan and began to cool himself with a consequential
air, while Charles Gould bowed and withdrew. Then he dropped the fan
at once, and stared with an appearance of wonder and perplexity at the
closed door for quite a long time. At last he shrugged his shoulders as
if to assure himself of his disdain. Cold, dull. No intellectuality. Red
hair. A true Englishman. He despised him.
His face darkened. What meant this unimpressed and frigid behaviour? He
was the first of the successive politicians sent out from the capital
to rule the Occidental Province whom the manner of Charles Gould in
official intercourse was to strike as offensively independent.
Charles Gould assumed that if the appearance of listening to deplorable
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