Administration in Sta.
Marta (a polished, well-informed gentleman, Sir John thought him) had certainly
helped so greatly in bringing about the presidential tour that he began to think
that there was something in the faint whispers hinting at the immense occult
influence of the Gould Concession. What was currently whispered was this - that
the San Tomé Administration had, in part, at least, financed the last
revolution, which had brought into a five-year dictatorship Don Vincente
Ribiera, a man of culture and of unblemished character, invested with a mandate
of reform by the best elements of the State. Serious, well-informed men seemed
to believe the fact, to hope for better things, for the establishment of
legality, of good faith and order in public life. So much the better, then,
thought Sir John. He worked always on a great scale; there was a loan to the
State, and a project for systematic colonization of the Occidental Province,
involved in one vast scheme with the construction of the National Central
Railway. Good faith, order, honesty, peace, were badly wanted for this great
development of material interests. Anybody on the side of these things, and
especially if able to help, had an importance in Sir John's eyes. He had not
been disappointed in the »King of Sulaco.« The local difficulties had fallen
away, as the engineer-in-chief had foretold they would, before Charles Gould's
mediation. Sir John had been extremely fêted in Sulaco, next to the
President-Dictator, a fact which might have accounted for the evident ill-humour
General Montero displayed at lunch given on board the Juno just before she was
to sail, taking away from Sulaco the President-Dictator and the distinguished
foreign guests in his train.
    The Excellentissimo (»the hope of honest men,« as Don José had addressed him
in a public speech delivered in the name of the Provincial Assembly of Sulaco)
sat at the head of the long table; Captain Mitchell, positively stony-eyed and
purple in the face with the solemnity of this historical event, occupied the
foot as the representative of the O.S.N. Company in Sulaco, the hosts of that
informal function, with the captain of the ship and some minor officials from
the shore around him. Those cheery, swarthy little gentlemen cast jovial
side-glances at the bottles of champagne beginning to pop behind the guests'
backs in the hands of the ship's stewards. The amber wine creamed up to the rims
of the glasses.
    Charles Gould had his place next