re, and got better
after a few days. I have given you already the very last moments I can
spare. Ask Senora Gould to send you one."

He was feeling uneasy at the impiety of this refusal. The Padrona
believed in priests, and confessed herself to them. But all women
did that. It could not be of much consequence. And yet his heart felt
oppressed for a moment--at the thought what absolution would mean to her
if she believed in it only ever so little. No matter. It was quite true
that he had given her already the very last moment he could spare.

"You refuse to go?" she gasped. "Ah! you are always yourself, indeed."

"Listen to reason, Padrona," he said. "I am needed to save the silver of
the mine. Do you hear? A greater treasure than the one which they say
is guarded by ghosts and devils on Azuera. It is true. I am resolved to
make this the most desperate affair I was ever engaged on in my whole
life."

She felt a despairing indignation. The supreme test had failed. Standing
above her, Nostromo did not see the distorted features of her face,
distorted by a paroxysm of pain and anger. Only she began to tremble all
over. Her bowed head shook. The broad shoulders quivered.

"Then God, perhaps, will have mercy upon me! But do you look to it, man,
that you get something for yourself out of it, besides the remorse that
shall overtake you some day."

She laughed feebly. "Get riches at least for once, you indispensable,
admired Gian' Battista, to whom the peace of a dying woman is less
than the praise of people who have given you a silly name--and nothing
besides--in exchange for your soul and body."

The Capataz de Cargadores swore to himself under his breath.

"Leave my soul alone, Padrona, and I shall know how to take care of
my body. Where is the harm of people having need of me? What are you
envying me that I have robbed you and the children of? Those very people
you are throwing in my teeth have done more for old Giorgio than they
ever thought of doing for me."

He struck his breast with his open palm; his voice had remained low
though he had spoken in a forcible tone. He twisted his moustaches one
after another, and his eyes wandered a little about the room.

"Is it my fault that I am the only man for their purposes? What angry
nonsense are you talking, mother? Would you rather have me timid and
foolish, selling water-melons on the market-place or rowing a boat for
passengers along the harbour, like a soft Neapoli