They sought information from the jeweler or insinuated to him a few ideas, with the hope that these would be communicated to the Captain-General.

To all the remedies suggested Simoun responded with a sarcastic and unfeeling exclamation about nonsense, until one of them in exasperation asked him for his opinion.
"My opinion ?" he retorted.

"Study how other nations prosper, and then do as they do." "And why do they prosper, Senor 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.