Speaker 1: This is section twenty one of The Gilded Age. This
Speaker 1: LibriVox according 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 twenty one. Oh lift your natures up, embrace our aims,
Speaker 1: work out your freedom. Girls, Knowledge is now no more
Speaker 1: a fountain sealed. Drink deep until the habits of the slave,
Speaker 1: the sins of emptiness, gossip and spite, and slander die
Speaker 1: the princess. Whether medicine is a science or only an
Speaker 1: empirical method of getting a living out of the ignorance
Speaker 1: of the human race. Ruth found before her first term
Speaker 1: was over at the medical school that there were other
Speaker 1: things she needed to know quite as much as that
Speaker 1: which is taught in medical books, and that she could
Speaker 1: never satisfy her aspirations without more general culture. Gazieur doctor
Speaker 1: know anything. I don't mean about medicine, but about things
Speaker 1: in general? Is he a man of information and good sense?
Speaker 1: Once asked an old practitioner. If he doesn't know anything
Speaker 1: but medicine, the chances he doesn't know that The close
Speaker 1: application to her special study was beginning to tell upon
Speaker 1: Ruth's delicate health. Also, and the summer brought with it
Speaker 1: only weariness and the indisposition for any mental effort. In
Speaker 1: this condition of mind and body, the quiet of her
Speaker 1: home and the unexciting companionship of those about her were
Speaker 1: more than ever tiresome. She followed with more interest Philip's
Speaker 1: sparkling account of his life in the West, and longed
Speaker 1: for his experiences and to know some of those people
Speaker 1: of a world so different from here who alternately amused
Speaker 1: and displeased him. He at least was learning the world,
Speaker 1: the good and the bad of it, as must happen
Speaker 1: to everyone who accomplishes anything in it. But what Ruth
Speaker 1: wrote could a woman do? Tied up by custom and
Speaker 1: cast into particular circumstances out of which it was almost
Speaker 1: impossible to extricate herself. Philip thought that he would go
Speaker 1: some day and extricate Ruth, but he did not write that,
Speaker 1: for he had the instinct to know that this was
Speaker 1: not the extrication she dreamed of, and that she must
Speaker 1: find out by her own experience what her heart really wanted.
Speaker 1: Philip was not a philosopher, to be sure, but he
Speaker 1: had the old fashioned notion that whatever a woman's theories
Speaker 1: of life might be, she would come round to matrimony,
Speaker 1: only give her time. He could indeed recall to mind
Speaker 1: one woman, And he never knew a nobler whose whole
Speaker 1: soul was devoted, and who believed that her life was
Speaker 1: consecrated to a certain benevolent project in singleness of life,
Speaker 1: who yielded to the touch of matrimony as an icicle
Speaker 1: yields to a sunbeam. Neither at home nor elsewhere did
Speaker 1: Ruth utter any complaint or admit any weariness or doubt
Speaker 1: of her ability to pursue the path she had marked
Speaker 1: out for herself. But her mother saw clearly enough her
Speaker 1: struggle with infirmity, and was not deceived by either her
Speaker 1: gaiety or by the cheerful composure which she carried into
Speaker 1: all the ordinary duties that fell to her. She saw
Speaker 1: plainly enough that Ruth needed an entire change of scene
Speaker 1: and of occupation, and perhaps she believed that such a change,
Speaker 1: with the knowledge of the world it would bring, would
Speaker 1: divert Ruth from a course for which she felt she
Speaker 1: was physically entirely unfitted. It therefore suited the wishes of
Speaker 1: all concerned. When autumn came that Ruth should go away
Speaker 1: to school, she selected a large New England seminary, of
Speaker 1: which she had often heard Philip speak, which was attended
Speaker 1: by both sexes and offered almost collegiate advantages of education.
Speaker 1: Thither she went in September and began, for the second
Speaker 1: time in the year, a life new to her. The
Speaker 1: seminary was the chief feature of fall Kill, a village
Speaker 1: of two to three thousand inhabitants. It was a prosperous school,
Speaker 1: with three hundred students, a large corps of teachers, men
Speaker 1: and women, and with a venerable rusty row of academic
Speaker 1: buildings on the shared square of the town. The students
Speaker 1: lodged and boarded in private families in the place, and
Speaker 1: so it came about that while the school did a
Speaker 1: great deal to support the town, the town gave the
Speaker 1: students society and the sweet influences of home life. It
Speaker 1: is at least respectful to say that the influences of
Speaker 1: home life are sweet. Ruth's home, by the intervention of Philip,
Speaker 1: was in a family one of the rare exceptions in
Speaker 1: life or in fiction, that had never known better days.
Speaker 1: The Montague's, it is perhaps well to say, had intended
Speaker 1: to come over in the Mayflower, but were detail. Pained
Speaker 1: at delph Haven by the illness of a child, they
Speaker 1: came over to Massachusetts Bay in another vessel, and thus
Speaker 1: escaped the onus of that brevet nobility under which the
Speaker 1: successors of the Mayflower Pilgrims have descended. Having no factitious
Speaker 1: weight of dignity to carry, the Montague steadily improved their
Speaker 1: condition from the day they landed, and they were never
Speaker 1: more vigorous or prosperous than at the date of this narrative.
Speaker 1: With character compacted by the rigid Puritan discipline of more
Speaker 1: than two centuries, they had retained its strength and purity
Speaker 1: and thrown off its narrowness, and were now blossoming under
Speaker 1: the generous modern influences. Squire Oliver Montague, a lawyer who
Speaker 1: had retired from the practice of his profession except in
Speaker 1: rare cases, dwelt in a square, old fashioned New England
Speaker 1: mansion a quarter of a mile from the Green. It
Speaker 1: was called a mansion because it stood alone, with ample
Speaker 1: fields about it, and had an avenue of trees leading
Speaker 1: to it from the road, and on the west commanded
Speaker 1: a view of a pretty little lake with gentle slopes
Speaker 1: and nodding groves. But it was just a plain, roomy house,
Speaker 1: capable of extending to many guests an unpretending hospitality. The
Speaker 1: family consisted of the squire and his wife, a son
Speaker 1: and a daughter married and not at home, a son
Speaker 1: in college at Cambridge, another son at the seminary, and
Speaker 1: a daughter, Alice, who was a year or more older
Speaker 1: than Ruth. Having only riches enough to be able to
Speaker 1: gratify reasonable desires, and yet make their gratifications always a
Speaker 1: novelty and a pleasure, the family occupied that just mean
Speaker 1: in life, which is so rarely attained, and still more
Speaker 1: rarely enjoyed without discontent. If Ruth did not find so
Speaker 1: much luxury in the house as in her own home,
Speaker 1: there were evidences of culture, of intellectual activity, and of
Speaker 1: a zest in the affairs of all the world, which
Speaker 1: greatly impressed her. Every room had its bookcases or bookshelves,
Speaker 1: and was more or less a library. Upon every table
Speaker 1: was liable to be a litter of new books, fresh periodicals,
Speaker 1: and daily newspapers. There were plants in the sunny windows,
Speaker 1: and some choice engravings on the walls with bits of
Speaker 1: color in oil or water colors. The piano was sure
Speaker 1: to be open and strewn with music, and there were
Speaker 1: photographs and little souvenirs here and there of foreign travel.
Speaker 1: An absence of any wat pots in the corners with
Speaker 1: rows of cheerful shells, and Hindu gods and Chinese idols,
Speaker 1: and nests of useless boxes of lacquered wood might be
Speaker 1: taken as denoting a languidness in the family concerning foreign missions,
Speaker 1: But perhaps unjustly. At any rate, the life of the
Speaker 1: world flowed freely into this hospitable house, and there was
Speaker 1: always so much talk there of the news of the day,
Speaker 1: of the new books, and of all authors, of Boston
Speaker 1: radicalism and New York civilization, and the virtue of Congress,
Speaker 1: that small gossip stood a very poor chance. All this
Speaker 1: was in many ways so new to Ruth that she
Speaker 1: seemed to have passed into another world in which she
Speaker 1: experienced a freedom and a mental exhilaration unknown to her before.
Speaker 1: Under this influence, she entered upon her studies with keen enjoyment,
Speaker 1: finding for a time all the relaxation she needed in
Speaker 1: the charming social life at the Montague House. It is strange,
Speaker 1: she wrote to Philip in one of her occasional letters,
Speaker 1: that you never told me more about this delightful family,
Speaker 1: and scarcely mentioned Alice, who is the life of it,
Speaker 1: just the noblest girl, unselfish, knows how to do so
Speaker 1: many things, with lots of talent, with a dry humor
Speaker 1: and an odd way of looking at things, and yet
Speaker 1: quiet and even serious. Often one of your capable New
Speaker 1: England girls. We shall be great friends. It had never
Speaker 1: occurred to Philip that there was anything extra ordinary about
Speaker 1: the family that needed mention. He knew dozens of girls
Speaker 1: like Alice, he thought to himself, but only one like Ruth.
Speaker 1: Good friends the two girls were from the beginning. Ruth
Speaker 1: was a study to Alice, the product of a culture
Speaker 1: entirely foreign to her experience, so much a child in
Speaker 1: some things, so much a woman in others, and Ruth,
Speaker 1: in turn, it must be confessed probing. Alice, sometimes, with
Speaker 1: her serious gray eyes, wondered what her object in life was,
Speaker 1: and whether she had any purpose beyond living as she
Speaker 1: now saw her For she could scarcely conceive of a
Speaker 1: life that should not be devoted to the accomplishment of
Speaker 1: some definite work, and she had no doubt that in
Speaker 1: her own case everything else would yield to the professional
Speaker 1: career she had marked out, So you know, Philip Sterling,
Speaker 1: said Ruth one day, as the girls sat at their sewing.
Speaker 1: Ruth never embroidered and never sewed when she could avoid it.
Speaker 1: Bless her. Oh, yes, we are old friends. Philip used
Speaker 1: to come to Falkill often while he was in college.
Speaker 1: He was often rusticated here for a term, rusticated suspended
Speaker 1: for some college scrape. He was a great favorite here.
Speaker 1: Father and he were famous friends. Father said that Philip
Speaker 1: had no end of nonsense in him and was always
Speaker 1: blundering into something, but he was a royal good fellow
Speaker 1: and would come out all right. Did you think he
Speaker 1: was fickle? Why? I never thought whether he was or not,
Speaker 1: replied Alice, looking up. I suppose he was always in
Speaker 1: love with some girl or another, as college boys are.
Speaker 1: He used to make me his confidant now and then,
Speaker 1: and be terribly in the dumps. Why did he come
Speaker 1: to you, pursued Ruth. You were younger than he. I'm
Speaker 1: sure I don't know. He was at our house a
Speaker 1: good deal. Once, at a picnic by the lake, at
Speaker 1: the risk of his own life, he saved sister Milly
Speaker 1: from drowning, and we all liked to have him here.
Speaker 1: Perhaps he thought, as he had saved one sister, the
Speaker 1: other ought to help him when he was in trouble.
Speaker 1: I don't know. The fact was that Alice was a
Speaker 1: person who invited confidences because she never betrayed them, and
Speaker 1: gave abundant sympathy in return. There are persons whom we
Speaker 1: all know, to whom human confidences, troubles, and heartaches flow
Speaker 1: as naturally as streams to a placid lake. This is
Speaker 1: not a history of Falkhill, nor of the Montague family, worthy,
Speaker 1: as both are of that honour, and this narrative cannot
Speaker 1: be diverted into long loitering with them. If the reader
Speaker 1: visits the village today, he will doubtless be pointed out
Speaker 1: the Montague dwelling where Ruth lived, the cross lots path
Speaker 1: she traversed to the seminary, and the Venerable Chapel with
Speaker 1: its cracked bell. In the little society of the place,
Speaker 1: the Quaker girl was a favorite, and no considerable social
Speaker 1: gathering or pleasure party was thought complete without her. There
Speaker 1: was something in this seemingly transparent and yet deep character
Speaker 1: in her child out like gaiety and enjoyment of the
Speaker 1: society about her, and in her not seldom absorption in
Speaker 1: herself that would have made her long remembered there if
Speaker 1: no events had subsequently occurred to recall her to mind.
Speaker 1: To the surprise of Alice, Ruth took to the small
Speaker 1: gaieties of the village with a zest of enjoyment that
Speaker 1: seemed foreign to one who had devoted her life to
Speaker 1: a serious profession from the highest motives. Alice liked society
Speaker 1: well enough, she thought, but there was nothing exciting in
Speaker 1: that of falk Hill, nor anything novel in the attentions
Speaker 1: of the well bred young gentleman one met in it.
Speaker 1: It must have worn a different aspect to Ruth, for
Speaker 1: she entered into its pleasures at first with curiosity, and
Speaker 1: then with interest, and finally with a kind of staid
Speaker 1: abandon that no one would have deemed possible. For her
Speaker 1: parties picnics, rowing matches, moonlight strolls, nutting expeditions in the
Speaker 1: October woods. Alice declared that it was a whirl of dissipation.
Speaker 1: The fondness of Ruth, which was scarcely disguised for the
Speaker 1: company of agreeable young fellows who talked nothings, gave Alice
Speaker 1: opportunity for no end of bantering do you look upon
Speaker 1: them as subjects? Dear? She would ask, And Ruth laughed
Speaker 1: her merriest laugh, and then looked sober again. Perhaps she
Speaker 1: was thinking, after all, whether she knew herself. If you
Speaker 1: should rear a duck in the heart of the Sahara,
Speaker 1: no doubt it would swim if you brought it to
Speaker 1: the nile. Surely no one would have predicted when Ruth
Speaker 1: left Philadelphia that she would become absorbed to this extent
Speaker 1: and so happy in a life so unlike that she
Speaker 1: thought she desired. But no one can tell how a
Speaker 1: woman will act under any circumstances. The reason novelists nearly
Speaker 1: always fail in depicting women when they make them act,
Speaker 1: is that they let them do what they have observed
Speaker 1: some woman has done at some time or another, and
Speaker 1: that is where they make a mistake, For a woman
Speaker 1: will never do again what has been done before. It
Speaker 1: is this uncertainty that causes women considered as materials for
Speaker 1: fiction to be so interesting to themselves and to others.
Speaker 1: As the fall went on and the winter, Ruth did
Speaker 1: not distinguish herself greatly at the Fall Kill Seminary as
Speaker 1: a student, a fact that apparently gave her no anxiety,
Speaker 1: and did not diminish her enjoyment of a new sort
Speaker 1: of power which had awakened within her end of chapter
Speaker 1: twenty one,