Speaker 1: This is Section eighteen of The Gilded Age. This LibriVox
Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. The Gilded Age, A
Speaker 1: Tale of to Day by Mark Twain and C. D. Warner,
Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen. Eight years have passed since the death of
Speaker 1: mister Hawkins. Eight years are not many in the life
Speaker 1: of a nation or the history of a state, but
Speaker 1: they may be years of destiny that shall fix the
Speaker 1: current of the century. Following. Such years were those that
Speaker 1: followed the Little Scrimmage on Lexington Common. Such years were
Speaker 1: those that followed the double shotted demand for the surrender
Speaker 1: of Fort Sumter. History is never done with inquiring of
Speaker 1: these years, and summoning witnesses about them, and trying to
Speaker 1: understand their significance. The eight years in America from eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty to eighteen sixty eight uprooted institutions that were centuries old,
Speaker 1: changed the politics of a people, transformed the social life
Speaker 1: of half the country, and wrought so profoundly upon the
Speaker 1: entire national character that the influence cannot be measured short
Speaker 1: of two or three generations. As we are accustomed to
Speaker 1: interpret the economy of providence, the life of the individual
Speaker 1: is as nothing to that of the nation or the race.
Speaker 1: But who can say, in the broader view and the
Speaker 1: more intelligent weight of values, that the life of one
Speaker 1: man is not more than that of a nationality, and
Speaker 1: that there is not a tribunal where the tragedy of
Speaker 1: one human soul shall not seem more significant than the
Speaker 1: overturning of any human institution whatever. When one thinks of
Speaker 1: the tremendous forces of the upper and the nether world
Speaker 1: which play for the mastery of the soul of a
Speaker 1: woman during the few years in which she passes from
Speaker 1: plastic girlhood to the ripe maturity of womanhood, he may
Speaker 1: well stand in awe before the momentous drama. What capacity
Speaker 1: she has of purity, tenderness, goodness, What capacities of vileness,
Speaker 1: bitterness and evil nature? Must needs be lavish with the
Speaker 1: mother and creator of men and center in her all
Speaker 1: the possibilities of life, and a few critical years can
Speaker 1: decide whether her life is to be full of sweetness
Speaker 1: and light, whether she is to be the vestal of
Speaker 1: a holy temple, or whether she will be the fallen
Speaker 1: priestess of a desecrated shrine. There are women, it is true,
Speaker 1: who seem to be capable neither of rising much, nor
Speaker 1: of falling much, and of whom a conventional life saves
Speaker 1: from any special development of character. But Laura was not
Speaker 1: one of them. She had the fatal gift of beauty,
Speaker 1: and that more fatal gift which does not always accompany
Speaker 1: mere beauty, the power of fascination, a power that may
Speaker 1: indeed exist without beauty. She had will and pride, and
Speaker 1: courage and ambition, and she was left to be very
Speaker 1: much her own guide at the age when romance comes
Speaker 1: to the aid of passion, and when the awakening powers
Speaker 1: of her vigorous mind had little object on which to
Speaker 1: discipline themselves. The tremendous conflict that was fought in this
Speaker 1: girl's soul, none of those about her knew, and very
Speaker 1: few knew that her life had in it anything unusual
Speaker 1: or romantic or strange. Those were troublous days in Hawkeye,
Speaker 1: as well as in most other Missouri towns, days of confusion,
Speaker 1: when between Unionist and Confederate occupations, sudden maraudings and bushwhackings
Speaker 1: and raids, individuals escaped observation or comment in actions that
Speaker 1: would have filled the town with scandal and quiet times. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: we only need to deal with Laura's life at this
Speaker 1: period historically, and look back upon such portions of it
Speaker 1: as will serve to reveal the woman as he was.
Speaker 1: At the time of the arrival of mister Harry Brierly
Speaker 1: in Hawkeye. The Hawkins family were settled there and had
Speaker 1: a hard enough struggle with poverty and the necessity of
Speaker 1: keeping up appearances in accord with their own family pride,
Speaker 1: and the large expectations they secretly cherished of a fortune
Speaker 1: in the knobs of East Tennessee. How pinched they were,
Speaker 1: perhaps no one knew but Clay, to whom they looked
Speaker 1: for almost their whole support. Washington had been in Hawkeye
Speaker 1: off and on, attracted away occasionally by some tremendous speculation,
Speaker 1: from which he invariably returned to General Boswell's office. As
Speaker 1: poor as he went, he was the inventor of No
Speaker 1: one knew how many useless contrivances which were not worth patenting,
Speaker 1: and his years had been passed in dreaming and planning
Speaker 1: to no purpose, until he was now a man of
Speaker 1: about thirty, without a profession or a permanent occupation. A tall,
Speaker 1: brown haired, dreamy person of the best intents and a
Speaker 1: frailist resolution, probably However, the eight years had been happier
Speaker 1: to him than to any others in his circle, for
Speaker 1: the time had been mostly spent in a blissful dream
Speaker 1: of the coming of enormous wealth. He went out with
Speaker 1: a company from Hawkeye to the war and was not
Speaker 1: wanting encourage. But he would have been a better soldier
Speaker 1: if he had been less engaged in contrivances for circumventing
Speaker 1: the enemy by strategy unknown to the books. It happened
Speaker 1: to him to be captured in one of his self
Speaker 1: appointed expeditions, but the federal colonel released him after a
Speaker 1: short examination, satisfied that he could most injure the Confederate
Speaker 1: forces opposed to the Unionists by returning him to his regiment.
Speaker 1: Colonel Sellars was, of course a prominent man during the war.
Speaker 1: He was captain of the Home Guards in Hawkeye, and
Speaker 1: he never left home except upon one occasion, when on
Speaker 1: the strength of a rumor, he executed a flank movement
Speaker 1: and fortified Stone's Landing, a place which no one unacquainted
Speaker 1: with the country would be likely to find. Dad, said
Speaker 1: the colonel afterwards. The landing is the key to Upper Missouri,
Speaker 1: and it is the only place the enemy never captured.
Speaker 1: If other places had been defended as well as that was,
Speaker 1: the result would have been different. Sir. The Colonel had
Speaker 1: his own theories about war, as he had in other things.
Speaker 1: If everybody had stayed at home as he did, he said,
Speaker 1: the South never would have been conquered, for what would
Speaker 1: there have been to conquer. Mister jeff Davis was constantly
Speaker 1: writing him to take command of a corps in the
Speaker 1: Confederate Army, but Colonel Sellers said no, his duty was
Speaker 1: at home, and he was by no means idle. He
Speaker 1: was the inventor of the famous air torpedo, which came
Speaker 1: very near destroying the Union armies in Missouri and the
Speaker 1: city of Saint Louis itself. His plan was to fill
Speaker 1: a torpedo with Greek fire and poisonous and deadly missiles,
Speaker 1: attach it to a balloon, and then let it sail
Speaker 1: away over the hostile camp and explode at the right
Speaker 1: moment when the time fuse burned out. He intended to
Speaker 1: use this invention in the capture of Saint Louis, exploding
Speaker 1: his torpedoes over the city and reigning destruction upon it
Speaker 1: until the Army of Occupation would gladly capitulate. He was
Speaker 1: unable to procure the Greek fire, but he constructed a
Speaker 1: vicious torpedo which would have answered the purpose. But the
Speaker 1: first one prematurely exploded in his wood house, blowing it
Speaker 1: clean away and setting fire to his house. The neighbors
Speaker 1: helped him put out the conflagration, but they discouraged any
Speaker 1: more experiments of that sort. The patriotical gentleman, however, planted
Speaker 1: so much powder and so many explosive contrivances in the
Speaker 1: roads leading into Hawkeye, and then forgot the exact spots
Speaker 1: of danger that people were afraid to travel the highways
Speaker 1: and used to come to town across the fields. The
Speaker 1: colonel's motto was millions for defense, but not one cent
Speaker 1: for tribute. When Laura came to Hawkeye, she might have
Speaker 1: forgot gotten the annoyances of the gossips of Murphysburg and
Speaker 1: have outlived the bitterness that was growing in her heart
Speaker 1: if she had been thrown less upon herself, or if
Speaker 1: the surroundings of her life had been more congenial and helpful.
Speaker 1: But she had little society, less and less as she
Speaker 1: grew older. That was congenial to her, and her mind
Speaker 1: preyed upon itself, and the mystery of her birth at
Speaker 1: once chagrined her and raised in her the most extravagant expectations.
Speaker 1: She was proud, and she felt the sting of poverty.
Speaker 1: She could not but be conscious of her beauty also,
Speaker 1: and she was vain of that, and came to take
Speaker 1: a sort of delight in the exercise of her fascinations
Speaker 1: upon the rather loutish young men who came in her
Speaker 1: way and whom she despised. There was another world open
Speaker 1: to her, a world of books, but it was not
Speaker 1: the best world of that sort, for the small libraries
Speaker 1: she had access to in Hawkeye were decidedly miscellaneous and
Speaker 1: largely made up of romances and fictions, which fed her
Speaker 1: imagination with the most exaggerated notions of life, and showed
Speaker 1: her men and women in a very false sort of heroism.
Speaker 1: From these stories, she learned what a woman of keen
Speaker 1: intellect and some culture, joined to beauty and fascination of manner,
Speaker 1: might expect to accomplish in society. As she read of it,
Speaker 1: and along with these ideas she imbibed other very crude ones.
Speaker 1: In regard to the emancipation of women. There were also
Speaker 1: other books, histories, biographies of distinguished people, travels in far lands, poems,
Speaker 1: especially those of Byron, Scott and Shelley and Moore, which
Speaker 1: she eagerly absorbed and appropriated therefrom what was to her liking.
Speaker 1: Nobody in Hawkeye had read so much, or after a fashion,
Speaker 1: studied so diligently as Laura. She passed for an accomplished girl,
Speaker 1: and no doubt thought herself one, as she was judged
Speaker 1: by any standard near her. During the war, there came
Speaker 1: to Hawkeye Confederate officer Colonel Selby, who was stationed there
Speaker 1: for a time in command of that district. He was
Speaker 1: a handsome soldierly man of thirty years, a graduate of
Speaker 1: the University of Virginia, and of distinguished family, if his
Speaker 1: story might be believed, and it was evident, a man
Speaker 1: of the world and of extensive travel and adventure. To
Speaker 1: find in such an out of the way country place
Speaker 1: a woman like Laura was a piece of good luck,
Speaker 1: upon which Colonel Selby congratulated himself. He was studiously polite
Speaker 1: to her and treated her with a consideration to which
Speaker 1: she was accustomed. She had read of such men, but
Speaker 1: she had never seen one before. One so high bred,
Speaker 1: so noble in sentiment, so entertaining in conversation, so engaging
Speaker 1: in manner. It is a long story. Unfortunately, it is
Speaker 1: an old story, and it need not be dwelt on.
Speaker 1: Laura loved him and believed that his love for her
Speaker 1: was as pure and deep as her own. She worshiped
Speaker 1: him and would have counted her life a little thing
Speaker 1: to give him if he would only love her and
Speaker 1: let her feed the hunger of her heart upon him.
Speaker 1: The passion possessed her whole being and lifted her up
Speaker 1: till she seemed to walk on air. It was all true, then,
Speaker 1: the romances she had read, the bliss of love she
Speaker 1: had dreamed of. Why had she never noticed before how
Speaker 1: blithes in the world was, how jockuned with love. The
Speaker 1: birds sang it, the trees whispered it to her as
Speaker 1: she passed. The very flowers beneath her feet strewed the
Speaker 1: way as for a bridal march. When the colonel went away,
Speaker 1: they were engaged to be married as soon as he
Speaker 1: could make certain arrangements which he represented to be necessary,
Speaker 1: and quit the army. He wrote to her from Harding,
Speaker 1: a small town in the southwest corner of the state,
Speaker 1: saying that he should be held in the service longer
Speaker 1: than he had expected, but that it would not be
Speaker 1: more than a few months. Then he should be at
Speaker 1: liberty to take her to Chicago, where he had property,
Speaker 1: and should have business, either now or as soon as
Speaker 1: the war was over, which he thought could not last long. Meantime,
Speaker 1: why should they be separated. He was established in comfortable quarters,
Speaker 1: and if she could find company and join him, they
Speaker 1: would be married and gain so many more months of happiness.
Speaker 1: Was woman ever prudent when she loved Laura went to Harding,
Speaker 1: the neighbors supposed to Nurse Washington, who had fallen ill there.
Speaker 1: Her engagement was of course known in Hawkeye, and was
Speaker 1: indeed a matter of pride to her family. Missus Hawkins
Speaker 1: would have told the first inquirer that Laura had gone
Speaker 1: to be married, but Laura had cautioned her she did
Speaker 1: not want to be thought of, she said as going
Speaker 1: in search of a husband. Let the news come back
Speaker 1: after she was married. So she traveled to Harding on
Speaker 1: the pretense we have mentioned, and was married. She was married,
Speaker 1: But something must have happened on that very day or
Speaker 1: the next that alarmed her. Washington did not know then
Speaker 1: or after what it was, but Laura bound him not
Speaker 1: to send news of her marriage to Hawkeye yet, and
Speaker 1: to enjoin her mother not to speak of it. Whatever cruel,
Speaker 1: suspicion or nameless dread this was, Laura tried bravely to
Speaker 1: put it away and not let it cloud her happiness.
Speaker 1: Communication that summer, as may be imagined, was neither regular
Speaker 1: nor frequent between the remote Confederate camp at Harding and Hawkeye,
Speaker 1: and Laura was in a measure lost sight of Indeed,
Speaker 1: every one had troubles enough of his own without borrowing
Speaker 1: from his neighbors. Laura had given herself utterly to her husband,
Speaker 1: and if he had faults, if he was selfish, if
Speaker 1: he was sometimes coarse, if he was dissipated, she did
Speaker 1: not or would not see it. It was the passion
Speaker 1: of her life, the time when her whole nature went
Speaker 1: to flood tide and swept away all barriers. Was her
Speaker 1: husband ever cold or indifferent? She shut her eyes to
Speaker 1: everything but her sense of possession of her idol. Three
Speaker 1: months passed. One morning her husband informed her that he
Speaker 1: had been ordered south and must go within two hours.
Speaker 1: I can be ready, said Laura cheerfully. But I can't
Speaker 1: take you. You must go back to Hawkeye. Can't take me,
Speaker 1: Laura asked, with wonder in her eyes. I can't live
Speaker 1: without you. You said, oh, bother what I said, and
Speaker 1: the colonel took up his sword to buckle it on,
Speaker 1: and then continued coolly. The fact is, Laura, our romance
Speaker 1: is played out. Laura heard, but she did not comprehend.
Speaker 1: She caught his arm and cried, George, how can you
Speaker 1: joke so cruelly? I will go anywhere with you. I
Speaker 1: will wait anywhere. I can't go back to Hawkeye. Well
Speaker 1: go where you like, perhaps, continued he with a sneer.
Speaker 1: You would do as well to wait here for another colonel.
Speaker 1: Laura's brain whirled. She did not yet comprehend. What does
Speaker 1: this mean? Where are you going? It means, said the officer,
Speaker 1: in measured words, that you haven't anything to show for
Speaker 1: a legal marriage, and that I am going to New Orleans.
Speaker 1: It's a lie, George, it's a lie. I am your wife.
Speaker 1: I shall go. I shall follow you to New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Perhaps my wife might not like it. Laura raised her head,
Speaker 1: her eyes flamed with fire. She tried to utter a cry.
Speaker 1: And fell senseless on the floor. When she came to herself,
Speaker 1: the colonel was gone. Washington Hawkins stood at her bedside.
Speaker 1: Did she come to herself? Was there anything left in
Speaker 1: her heart but hate and bitterness, a sense of an
Speaker 1: infamous wrong at the hands of the only man she
Speaker 1: had ever loved. She returned to Hawkeye. With the exception
Speaker 1: of Washington and his mother. No one knew what had happened.
Speaker 1: The neighbors supposed that the engagement with Colonel Selby had
Speaker 1: fallen through. Laura was ill for a long time, but
Speaker 1: she re covered. She had that resolution in her that
Speaker 1: could conquer death almost and with her health came back
Speaker 1: her beauty and an added fascination of something that might
Speaker 1: be mistaken for sadness. Is there a beauty in the
Speaker 1: knowledge of evil? A beauty that shines out in the
Speaker 1: face of a person whose inward life is transformed by
Speaker 1: some terrible experience? Is the pathos in the eyes of
Speaker 1: the Beatrice Cenchi From her guilt or her innocence, Laura
Speaker 1: was not much changed. The lovely woman had a devil
Speaker 1: in her heart. That was all. End of Chapter eighteen