As he sat there he had the air of meditating upon
sinister things. The engineer-in-chief gazed at him for a time before he
protested.
"I really don't see that. For me there seems to be nothing else.
However----"
He was a wise man, but he could not quite conceal his contempt for that
sort of paradox; in fact. Dr. Monygham was not liked by the Europeans
of Sulaco. His outward aspect of an outcast, which he preserved even in
Mrs. Gould's drawing-room, provoked unfavourable criticism. There could
be no doubt of his intelligence; and as he had lived for over twenty
years in the country, the pessimism of his outlook could not be
altogether ignored. But instinctively, in self-defence of their
activities and hopes, his hearers put it to the account of some hidden
imperfection in the man's character. It was known that many years
before, when quite young, he had been made by Guzman Bento chief medical
officer of the army. Not one of the Europeans then in the service
of Costaguana had been so much liked and trusted by the fierce old
Dictator.
Afterwards his story was not so clear.
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