Speaker 1: This is section forty one of The Gilded Age. This
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Gilded Age,
Speaker 1: A Tale of to Day by Mark Twain and C. D. Warner,
Speaker 1: Chapter forty one. Henry Brierly was at the Dilworthies constantly,
Speaker 1: and on such terms of intimacy that he came and
Speaker 1: went without question. The Senator was not an inhospitable man.
Speaker 1: He liked to have guests in his house, and Harry's
Speaker 1: gay humor and rattling way entertained him. For even the
Speaker 1: most devout men and busy statesmen must have hours of relaxation.
Speaker 1: Harry himself believed that he was of great service in
Speaker 1: the university business, and that the success of the scheme
Speaker 1: depended upon him. To a great degree. He spent many
Speaker 1: hours in talking it over with the Senator. After dinner.
Speaker 1: He went so far as to consider whether it would
Speaker 1: be worth his while to take the professorship of Civil
Speaker 1: Engineering in the new institution. But it was not the
Speaker 1: Senator's society nor his dinners at which this scapegate remarked
Speaker 1: that there was too much grace and too little wine
Speaker 1: which attracted him to the house. The fact was the
Speaker 1: poor fellow hung around there day after day for the
Speaker 1: chance of seeing Laura for five minutes at a time,
Speaker 1: for her presence at dinner, he would endure the long
Speaker 1: bore of the senator's talk. Afterwards, while Laura was off
Speaker 1: at some assembly or excused herself on the plea of fatigue.
Speaker 1: Now and then he accompanied her to some reception, And
Speaker 1: rarely on off nights he was blessed with her company
Speaker 1: in the parlor when he sang and was chatty and vivacious,
Speaker 1: and performed a hundred little tricks of imitation and ventriloquism,
Speaker 1: and made himself as entertaining as a man could be.
Speaker 1: It puzzled him not a little that all his fascinations
Speaker 1: seemed to go for so little with Laura. It was
Speaker 1: beyond his experience with women. Sometimes Laura was exceedingly kind
Speaker 1: and petted him a little, and took the trouble to
Speaker 1: exert her powers of pleasing and to entangle him deeper
Speaker 1: and deeper. But this it angered him afterwards to think
Speaker 1: was in private. In public, she was beyond his reach,
Speaker 1: and never gave occasion to the suspicion that she had
Speaker 1: any affair with him. He was never permitted to achieve
Speaker 1: the dignity of a serious flirtation with her in public.
Speaker 1: Why do you treat me so, he once said? Reproachfully?
Speaker 1: Treat you? How, asked Laura in a sweet voice, lifting
Speaker 1: her eyebrows. You know well enough you let other fellows
Speaker 1: monopolize you in society, and you are as indifferent to
Speaker 1: me as if we were strangers. Can I help it
Speaker 1: if they are attentive? Can I be rude? But we
Speaker 1: are such old friends, mister Brierly, that I didn't suppose
Speaker 1: you would be jealous. I think I must be a
Speaker 1: very old friend. Then, by your conduct towards me, by
Speaker 1: the same rule, I should judge that Colonel Selby must
Speaker 1: be very new. Laura looked up quickly, as if about
Speaker 1: to return an indignant answer to such impertinence, but she
Speaker 1: only said, well, what of colonel Selby sauce box? Nothing?
Speaker 1: Probably you'll care for your being with him so much
Speaker 1: as the town talk. That's all. What do people say,
Speaker 1: asked Laura calmly. Oh, they say a good many things.
Speaker 1: You were offended, though to have me speak of it
Speaker 1: not in the least. You are my true friend. I
Speaker 1: feel that I can trust you. You wouldn't deceive me, Harry,
Speaker 1: throwing into her eyes a look of trust and tenderness
Speaker 1: that melted away all his petulance and distrust. What do
Speaker 1: you say? Some say that you've lost your head about him,
Speaker 1: Others that you don't care any more for him than
Speaker 1: you do for a dozen others, but that he is
Speaker 1: completely fascinated with you and about to desert his wife.
Speaker 1: And others say it is nonsense to suppose you would
Speaker 1: entangle yourself with a married man, and that your intimacy
Speaker 1: only arises from the matter of the cotton claims, for
Speaker 1: which he wants your influence with Dilworthy. But you know
Speaker 1: everybody has talked about more or less in Washington. I
Speaker 1: shouldn't care, but I wish you wouldn't have so much
Speaker 1: to do with Selby, Laura continued Harry, fancying that he
Speaker 1: was now upon such terms that his advice would be heeded,
Speaker 1: and you believed these slanders. I don't believe anything against you, Laura,
Speaker 1: but Colonel Selby does not mean you any good. I
Speaker 1: know you wouldn't be seen with him if you knew
Speaker 1: his reputation. Do you know him, Laura asked, as indifferently
Speaker 1: as she could, Only a little. I was at his
Speaker 1: lodgings in Georgetown a day or two ago with Colonel Sellers.
Speaker 1: Sellers wanted to talk with him about some patent remedy
Speaker 1: he has I water or something of that sort, which
Speaker 1: he wants to introduce into Europe. Selby is going abroad
Speaker 1: very soon, Laura started, in spite of her self control.
Speaker 1: And his wife does he take his family? Did you
Speaker 1: see his wife? Yes, a dark little woman, rather worn,
Speaker 1: must have been pretty once though, has three or four children,
Speaker 1: one of them a baby. They'll all go, of course,
Speaker 1: She said, she should be glad enough to get away
Speaker 1: from Washington. You know, Selby has got his claim aloud,
Speaker 1: and they say he has had a run of luck lately.
Speaker 1: At Morrissey's. Laura heard all this in a kind of stupor,
Speaker 1: looking straight at Harry without seeing him. Is it possible?
Speaker 1: She was thinking that this base wretch, after all his promises,
Speaker 1: will take his wife and children and leave me. Is
Speaker 1: it possible the town is saying all these things about me,
Speaker 1: and a look of bitterness coming into her face. Does
Speaker 1: the fool think he can escape? So you are angry
Speaker 1: with me, Laura said Harry, not comprehending. In the least
Speaker 1: what was going on in her mind. Angry, she said,
Speaker 1: forcing herself to come back to his presence with you.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I am angry with the cruel world which
Speaker 1: pursues an independent woman as it never does a man.
Speaker 1: Ungrateful to you, Harry, ungrateful to you for telling me
Speaker 1: of that odious man. And she rose from her chair
Speaker 1: and gave him her pretty hand, which the silly fellow
Speaker 1: took and kissed and clung to, and he said many
Speaker 1: silly things before she disengaged herself gently and left him,
Speaker 1: saying it was time to dress for dinner. And Harry
Speaker 1: went away excited and a little hopeful, but only a little.
Speaker 1: The happiness was only a gleam which departed and left
Speaker 1: him thoroughly miserable. She never would love him, and she
Speaker 1: was going to be the devil. Besides, he couldn't shut
Speaker 1: his eyes to what he saw, nor his ears to
Speaker 1: what he heard of her. What had come over this
Speaker 1: thrilling young lady killer? It was a pity to see
Speaker 1: such a gay butterfly broken on a wheel? Was there
Speaker 1: something good in him? After all that had been touched?
Speaker 1: He was, in fact madly in love with this woman.
Speaker 1: It is not for us to analyze the passion and
Speaker 1: say whether it was a worthy one. It absorbed his
Speaker 1: whole nature and made him wretched enough if he deserved punishment,
Speaker 1: what more would you have? Perhaps this love was kindling
Speaker 1: a new heroism in him. He saw the road on
Speaker 1: which Laura was going clearly enough, though he did not
Speaker 1: believe the worst he heard of her. He loved her
Speaker 1: too passionately to credit that for a moment, and it
Speaker 1: seemed to him that if he could compel her to
Speaker 1: recognize her position and his own devotion, she might love him,
Speaker 1: and that he could save her. His love was so
Speaker 1: far ennobled and become a very different thing from its
Speaker 1: beginning in Hawkeye. Whether he ever thought that if he
Speaker 1: could save her from ruin, he could give her up
Speaker 1: himself as doubtful. Such a pitch of virtue does not
Speaker 1: occur often in real life, especially in such natures as Harry's,
Speaker 1: whose generosity and unselfishness were matters of temperament rather than
Speaker 1: habits or principles. He wrote a long letter to Laura,
Speaker 1: an incoherent, passionate letter, pouring out his love as he
Speaker 1: could not do in her presence, and warning her as
Speaker 1: plainly as he dared of the dangers that surrounded her
Speaker 1: and the risks she ran, of compromising herself in many ways.
Speaker 1: Laura read the letter with a little sigh, maybe as
Speaker 1: she thought of other days, but with contempt also, and
Speaker 1: she put it into the fire with the thought they
Speaker 1: are all alike. Harry was in the habit of writing
Speaker 1: to Philip freely and boasting also about his doings, as
Speaker 1: he could not help doing, and remain himself mixed up
Speaker 1: with his own exploits and his daily triumphs as a lobbyist,
Speaker 1: especially in the matter of the new university in which
Speaker 1: Harry was to have something handsome, were amusing sketches of
Speaker 1: Washington society, hints about dilworthy, stories about Colonel Sellers, who
Speaker 1: had become a well known character, and wise remarks upon
Speaker 1: the machinery of private legislation for the public good which
Speaker 1: greatly entertained Philip in his convalescence. Laura's name occurred very
Speaker 1: often in these letters, at first in casual mention as
Speaker 1: the bell of the season, carrying everything before her with
Speaker 1: her wit and beauty, and then more seriously, as if
Speaker 1: Harry did not exactly like so much general admiration of
Speaker 1: her and was a little nettled by her treatment of him.
Speaker 1: This was so different from Harry's usual tone about women
Speaker 1: that Philip wondered a good deal over it. Could it
Speaker 1: be possible that he was seriously affected? Then came stories
Speaker 1: about Laura town talk gossip, which Harry denied the truth
Speaker 1: of indignantly, But he was evidently uneasy, and at length
Speaker 1: wrote in such miserable spirits that Philip asked him squarely
Speaker 1: what the trouble was? Was he in love? Upon this,
Speaker 1: Harry made a clean breast of it and told Philip
Speaker 1: all he knew about the Selby affair and Laura's treatment
Speaker 1: of him, sometimes encouraging him and then throwing him off,
Speaker 1: And finally his belief that she would go to the
Speaker 1: bad if something was not done to arouse you her
Speaker 1: from her infatuation. He wished Philip was in Washington. He
Speaker 1: knew Laura, and she had a great respect for his character,
Speaker 1: his opinions, his judgment. Perhaps he as an uninterested person
Speaker 1: in whom she would have some confidence, and as one
Speaker 1: of the public, could say something to her that would
Speaker 1: show her where she stood. Philip saw the situation clearly enough.
Speaker 1: Of Laura, he knew not much except that she was
Speaker 1: a woman of uncommon fascination, and he thought, from what
Speaker 1: he had seen of her in Hawkeye, her conduct towards
Speaker 1: him and towards Harry of not too much principle. Of course,
Speaker 1: he knew nothing of her history. He knew nothing seriously
Speaker 1: against her, And if Harry was desperately enamored of her,
Speaker 1: why should he not win her if he could? If, however,
Speaker 1: she had already become what Harry uneasily felt she might become.
Speaker 1: Was it not his duty to go to the rescue
Speaker 1: of his friend and try to save him from any
Speaker 1: rash act on account of a woman that might prove
Speaker 1: to be entirely unworthy of him. For trifler and visionary
Speaker 1: as he was, Harry deserved a better fate than this.
Speaker 1: Philip determined to go to Washington and see for himself.
Speaker 1: He had other reasons. Also. He began to know enough
Speaker 1: of mister Bolton's affairs to be uneasy. Pennybacker had been
Speaker 1: there several times during the winter, and he suspected that
Speaker 1: he was involving mister Bolton in some doubtful scheme. Pennybacker
Speaker 1: was in Washington, and Philip thought he might perhaps find
Speaker 1: out something about him and his plans that would be
Speaker 1: of service to mister Bolton. Philip had enjoyed his winter
Speaker 1: very well. For a man with his arm broken and
Speaker 1: his head smashed with two such nurses as Ruth and Alice,
Speaker 1: illness seemed to him rather a nice holiday, and every
Speaker 1: moment of his convalescence had been precious and all too
Speaker 1: fleeting with a young fellow of the habits of Philip.
Speaker 1: Such injuries cannot be counted on to tarry long, even
Speaker 1: for the purpose of love making, and Philip found himself
Speaker 1: getting strong with even disagreeable rapidity during his first weeks
Speaker 1: of pain and weakness. Ruth was unceasing in her ministrations.
Speaker 1: She quietly took charge of him, and with a gentle firmness,
Speaker 1: resisted all attempts of Alice or anyone else to share
Speaker 1: to any great extent the burden with her. She was clear, decisive,
Speaker 1: and peremptory in whatever she did. But often when Philip
Speaker 1: opened his eyes in those first days of suffering and
Speaker 1: found her standing by his bedside, he saw a look
Speaker 1: of tenderness in her anxious face that quickened his already
Speaker 1: feverish pulse, a look that remained in his heart long
Speaker 1: after he closed his eyes. Sometimes he felt her hand
Speaker 1: on his forehead and did not open his eyes for
Speaker 1: fear she would take it away. He watched for her
Speaker 1: coming to his chamber. He could distinguish her light footstep
Speaker 1: from all others. If this is what is meant by
Speaker 1: women practicing medicine, thought Philip to himself. I Ruth, said
Speaker 1: he one day, when he was getting to be quite himself.
Speaker 1: I believe in it. Believe in what? Why in women physicians?
Speaker 1: Then I'd better call in missus doctor Longstreet. Oh, no
Speaker 1: one will do one at a time. I think I
Speaker 1: should be well tomorrow. If I thought I should never
Speaker 1: have any other. The physician thinks THEE mustn't talk, Philip,
Speaker 1: said Ruth, putting her finger on his lips. But Ruth,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you that I should wish I
Speaker 1: never got well. If there there THEE must not talk.
Speaker 1: THEE is wandering again. And Ruth closed his lips with
Speaker 1: a smile on her own that broadened into a merry
Speaker 1: laugh as she ran away. Philip was not weary, however,
Speaker 1: of making these attempts. He rather enjoyed it. But whenever
Speaker 1: he inclined to be sentimental, Ruth would cut him off
Speaker 1: with some such gravely conceived speech, as does THEE think
Speaker 1: that thy physician will take advance of the condition of
Speaker 1: a man who is as weak as THEE is. I
Speaker 1: will call Alice if he has any dying confessions to make.
Speaker 1: As Philip convalesced, Alice more and more took Ruth's place
Speaker 1: as his entertainer and read to him by the hour
Speaker 1: when he did not want to talk to talk about Ruth,
Speaker 1: as he did a good deal at the time. Nor
Speaker 1: was this altogether unsatisfactory to Philip. He was always happy
Speaker 1: and contented with Alice. She was the most RESTful person
Speaker 1: he knew, better informed than Ruth, and with a much
Speaker 1: more varied culture, and bright and sympathetic. He was never
Speaker 1: weary of her company, if he was not greatly excited
Speaker 1: by it. She had upon his mind that peaceful influence
Speaker 1: that Missus Bolton had when occasionally she sat by his
Speaker 1: bedside with her work. Some people have this influence, which
Speaker 1: is like an emanation. They bring peace to a house.
Speaker 1: They diffuse serene content in a room full of mixed company,
Speaker 1: though they may say very little and are apparently unconscious
Speaker 1: of their own power. Not that Philip did not long
Speaker 1: for Ruth's presence all the time, since he was well
Speaker 1: enough to be about the house. She was busy again
Speaker 1: with her studies. Now and then her teasing humor came again.
Speaker 1: She always had a playful shield against his sentiment. Philip
Speaker 1: used sometimes to declare that she had no sentiment, and
Speaker 1: then he doubted if he should be pleased with her,
Speaker 1: after all, if she were at all sentimental. And he
Speaker 1: rejoiced that she had in such matters what he called
Speaker 1: the airy grace of sanity. She was the most gay,
Speaker 1: serious person he ever saw. Perhaps he was not so
Speaker 1: much at rest or so contented with her as with Alice,
Speaker 1: But then he loved her, And what have rest and
Speaker 1: contentment to do with love? End of chapter forty one.