"My opinion?" he retorted. "Study how other nations prosper, and then
do as they do."

"And why do they prosper, Señor Simoun?"

Simoun replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"The port works, which weigh so heavily upon commerce, and the port
not yet completed!" sighed Don Timoteo Pelaez. "A Penelope's web,
as my son says, that is spun and unspun. The taxes--"

"You complaining!" exclaimed another. "Just as the General has decreed
the destruction of houses of light materials! [35] And you with a
shipment of galvanized iron!"

"Yes," rejoined Don Timoteo, "but look what that decree cost me! Then,
the destruction will not be carried out for a month, not until Lent
begins, and other shipments may arrive. I would have wished them
destroyed right away, but--Besides, what are the owners of those
houses going to buy from me if they are all poor, all equally beggars?"

"You can always buy up their shacks for a trifle."

"And afterwards have the decree revoked and sell them back at double
the price--that's business!"

Simoun smiled his frigid smile. Seeing Quiroga approach, he left the
querulous merchants to greet the future consul, who on catching sight
of him lost his satisfied expression and assigned a countenance like