登陆注册
15422900000061

第61章

She was facing him now in the deep recess of the window, very close and motionless. Her lips moved rapidly. Decoud, leaning his back against the wall, listened with crossed arms and lowered eyelids. He drank the tones of her even voice, and watched the agitated life of her throat, as if waves of emotion had run from her heart to pass out into the air in her reasonable words. He also had his aspirations, he aspired to carry her away out of these deadly futilities of pronunciamientos and reforms. All this was wrong -- utterly wrong; but she fascinated him, and sometimes the sheer sagacity of a phrase would break the charm, replace the fascination by a sudden unwilling thrill of interest. Some women hovered, as it were, on the threshold of genius, he reflected. They did not want to know, or think, or understand. Passion stood for all that, and he was ready to believe that some startlingly profound remark, some appreciation of character, or a judgment upon an event, bordered on the miraculous.

In the mature Antonia he could see with an extraordinary vividness the austere schoolgirl of the earlier days. She seduced his attention; sometimes he could not restrain a murmur of assent; now and then he advanced an objection quite seriously. Gradually they began to argue; the curtain half hid them from the people in the sala .

Outside it had grown dark. From the deep trench of shadow between the houses, lit up vaguely by the glimmer of street lamps, ascended the evening silence of Sulaco; the silence of a town with a few carriages, of unshod horses, and a softly sandalled population. The windows of the Casa Gould flung their shining parallelograms upon the house of the Avellanos. Now and then a shuffle of feet passed below with the pulsating red glow of a cigarette at the foot of the walls; and the night air, as if cooled by the snows of Higuerota, refreshed their faces.

`We Occidentals,' said Martin Decoud, using the usual term the provincials of Sulaco applied to themselves, `have been always distinct and separated.

As long as we hold Cayta nothing can reach us. In all our troubles no army has marched over those mountains. A revolution in the central provinces isolates us at once. Look how complete it is now! The news of Barrios's movement will be cabled to the United States, and only in that way will it reach Sta Marta by the cable from the other seaboard. We have the greatest riches, the greatest fertility, the purest blood in our great families, the most laborious population. The Occidental Province should stand alone.

The early Federalism was not bad for us. Then came this union which Don Henrique Gould resisted. It opened the road to tyranny; and, ever since, the rest of Costaguana hangs like a millstone round our necks. The Occidental territory is large enough to make any man's country. Look at the mountains!

Nature itself seems to cry to us "Separate!"'

She made an energetic gesture of negation. A silence fell.

`O, yes, I know it's contrary to the doctrine laid down in the History of Fifty Years' Misrule . I am only trying to be sensible. But my sense seems always to give you cause for offence. Have I startled you very much with this perfectly reasonable aspiration?'

She shook her head. No, she was not startled, but the idea shocked her early convictions. Her patriotism was larger. She had never considered that possibility.

`It may yet be the means of saving some of your convictions,' he said, prophetically.

She did not answer. She seemed tired. They leaned side by side on the rail of the little balcony, very friendly, having exhausted politics, giving themselves up to the silent feeling of their nearness, in one of those profound pauses that fall upon the rhythm of passion. Towards the plaza end of the street the glowing coals in the brazeros of the market women cooking their evening meal gleamed red along the edge of the pavement.

A man appeared without a sound in the light of a street lamp, showing the coloured inverted triangle of his bordered poncho, square on his shoulders, hanging to a point below his knees. From the harbour end of the calle a horseman walked his soft-stepping mount, gleaming silver-grey abreast each lamp under the dark shape of the rider.

`Behold the illustrious Capataz de Cargadores,' said Decoud, gently, `coming in all his splendour after his work is done. The next great man of Sulaco after Don Carlos Gould. But he is good-natured, and let me make friends with him.'

`Ah, indeed!' said Antonia. `How did you make friends?'

`A journalist ought to have his finger on the popular pulse, and this man is one of the leaders of the populace. A journalist ought to know remarkable men -- and this man is remarkable in his way.'

`Ah, yes!' said Antonia, thoughtfully. `It is known that this Italian has a great influence.'

The horseman had passed below them, with a gleam of dim light on the shining broad quarters of the grey mare, on a bright heavy stirrup, on a long silver spur; but the short flick of yellowish flame in the dusk was powerless against the muffled-up mysteriousness of the dark figure with an invisible face concealed by a great sombrero.

Decoud and Antonia remained leaning over the balcony, side by side, touching elbows, with their heads overhanging the darkness of the street, and the brilliantly lighted sala at their backs. This was a tete-a-tete of extreme impropriety; something of which in the whole extent of the Republic only the extraordinary Antonia could be capable -- the poor, motherless girl, never accompanied, with a careless father, who had thought only of making her learned. Even Decoud himself seemed to feel that this was as much as he could expect of having her to himself till -- till the revolution was over and he could carry her off to Europe, away from the endlessness of civil strife, whose folly seemed even harder to bear than its ignominy.

同类推荐
  • 元朝典故编年考

    元朝典故编年考

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 先觉宗乘

    先觉宗乘

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 天仙道程宝则

    天仙道程宝则

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 晋政辑要

    晋政辑要

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 朝鲜赋

    朝鲜赋

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 中土逍遥游

    中土逍遥游

    汉唐一家,四方朝拜的中土世界;草木成精、精灵出没的东胜神州;禽兽成妖、杀戮遍地的南瞻部洲;类人种族、繁衍栖息的西牛贺州;黑白人种,相互对峙的北俱芦洲。——故事的开始,从偶遇崇拜东方人类的绿皮人,以崇高的教师职业,教化蛮夷礼仪文章的起点开始······
  • 回忆阴魂不散

    回忆阴魂不散

    我踏上了兜售青春的火车,沦陷在工业园,穿梭在流水线,忙碌于三点一线,所谓一入江湖岁月催,是的,时间太瘦,指缝太宽,那么我还剩下什么,,,各位观众请看大屏幕
  • 黄金争夺战

    黄金争夺战

    在历史上,每逢经济、金融、政治动荡时期,黄金永远是稳妥的保值工具与避险利器。纵观当今金融市场,在全球经济持续动荡的情况下,黄金的需求和价格正在持续上涨,国际金价已连续10年保持了上涨势头,很少有人会怀疑,未来的国际金价将会一再刷新历史新高。而在黄金身价倍增的今天,作为一种不可再生的稀缺资源,金矿的战略重要性前所未有的凸现出来,围绕着对黄金和金矿的争夺与反争夺的战争,从来没有停止反而愈演愈烈。
  • 老婆大人求NG:默然欢喜

    老婆大人求NG:默然欢喜

    自从被噩运一耳光扇趴下,陶小然就学会了对命运点头哈腰。她不求完美的爱情,有个差不多的男人就好!她不求大富大贵,够吃够喝就好!她不求像姐姐那般风光,平平淡淡就好!拜托,这么朴实的要求,上帝居然还开她的玩笑?在这个连上帝都看人下菜碟的人世间,她决定不忍了!从此以后,关于一切,她要么不要,要么就必须最好!
  • 穿越至封建王朝

    穿越至封建王朝

    他是一名枪战游戏爱好者,他是一个枪战游戏职业玩家。他明知沉迷枪战游戏并不是什么好事,但他却仍然来到了网吧。直到天空中九星连成一线,星光挥洒大地,他才后悔..............
  • 恩公小男神:我是你的花仙姐姐

    恩公小男神:我是你的花仙姐姐

    为了报答他前世的救命之恩,身为大学女生的花妖混进了他的家,成为了他眼睛里的神仙姐姐。然而,自己的恩公俊美无比,简直就是小男神啊!唉,这可如何是好?自己是来修仙的,不是来恋爱的呀!可是有一天,恩公小男神说:“姐姐,我好像喜欢上你了!”
  • 毒后嫁到

    毒后嫁到

    良人?上辈子,娘亲的鲜血,她的惨死教会了良人两个字。什么是良人?那是毒蛇,一各个都是为了云家的势力而来。上辈子,云澜在临死前最后悔的事情就是救了秦亦,爱上了秦亦。这辈子,凤凰涅盘而生。装可怜?拜托,你不配,给我滚一边去!温润如玉?呵呵,本小姐不稀罕!这辈子,云澜在那个邪魅男子身上体会到了什么才是良人。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 奶茶有点爱

    奶茶有点爱

    我们,总是在不知不觉中,丢了自己的心。就好像,明明是觉得他和他才是绝配,结果太过于牵强,反而,自己沦陷。“如果我知道,后来的故事,我想我一定,不会再遇见你。”有些人,注定只能是过客,当苏洛遇见袁陌和邡初后,她才明白。
  • 佛说分别经

    佛说分别经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 东方古墓探寻

    东方古墓探寻

    中美组建的国际顶级的考古团队深入西南地区,在溶洞侦察到了抗战时期日本、德国等法西斯,在中国雪域高原盗墓寻宝的秘密行踪。经过中美两国考古工作者的不懈努力,终于让天体陨石的来龙去脉,中华远古文明之迷大白于天下。