Charles' Gould's silence, like a "fortress," is part of Nostromo's theme
in which speech is equivalent to military power. His silence, which has an exaggerated
flabbergasting effect on the provincial authority in the following paragraphs,
represents his desire not to rule in any personal sense. As the apostle of material
interests he sublimates himself totally to the victory of the inanimate ideal
without any thought or wish for personal glory -- a kind of abstract, impersonal
conqueror which the provincial authority cannot understand.