The mere expression of sorrow for the fate of executed
kinsmen had been punished with death. Don Jose Avellanos was perhaps the
only one living who knew the whole story of those unspeakable cruelties.
He had suffered from them himself, and he, with a shrug of the shoulders
and a nervous, jerky gesture of the arm, was wont to put away from him,
as it were, every allusion to it. But whatever the reason, Dr. Monygham,
a personage in the administration of the Gould Concession, treated with
reverent awe by the miners, and indulged in his peculiarities by Mrs.
Gould, remained somehow outside the pale.
It was not from any liking for the doctor that the engineer-in-chief had
lingered in the inn upon the plain. He liked old Viola much better. He
had come to look upon the Albergo d'ltalia Una as a dependence of the
railway. Many of his subordinates had their quarters there. Mrs. Gould's
interest in the family conferred upon it a sort of distinction. The
engineer-in-chief, with an army of workers under his orders, appreciated
the moral influence of the old Garibaldino upon his countrymen.
Pages:
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476