Speaker 1: This is section forty four 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 four. It's easy enough for another fellow to talk,
Speaker 1: said Harry despondingly, after he had put Philip in possession
Speaker 1: of his view of the case. It's easy enough to say,
Speaker 1: give her up if you don't care for her. What
Speaker 1: am I going to do to give her up? It
Speaker 1: seemed to Harry that it was a situation requiring some
Speaker 1: active measures. He couldn't realize that he had fallen hopelessly
Speaker 1: in love without some rights accruing to him for the
Speaker 1: possession of the object of his passion. Quiet resignation under
Speaker 1: relinquishment of anything he wanted was not in his line.
Speaker 1: And when it appeared to him that his surrender of
Speaker 1: Laura would be the withdrawal of the one barrier that
Speaker 1: kept her from ruin, it was unreasonable to expect that
Speaker 1: he could see how to give her up. Harry had
Speaker 1: the most buoyant confidence in his own project. Always he
Speaker 1: saw everything connected with himself in a large way, and
Speaker 1: in rosy lines. This predominance of the imagination over the
Speaker 1: judgment gave that appearance of exaggeration to his conversation and
Speaker 1: to his communications with regard to himself, which sometimes conveyed
Speaker 1: the impression that he was not speaking the truth. His
Speaker 1: acquaintances had been known to say that they invariably allowed
Speaker 1: a half for shrinkage in his statements and held the
Speaker 1: other half under advisement for confirmation. Philip, in this case
Speaker 1: could not tell from Harry's story exactly how much encouragement
Speaker 1: Laura had given him, nor what hopes he might justly
Speaker 1: have of winning her. He had never seen him desponding before.
Speaker 1: The bragg appeared to be all taken out of him,
Speaker 1: and his airy manner only asserted itself now and then
Speaker 1: in a comical imitation of its old self. Philip wanted
Speaker 1: time to look about him before he decided what to do.
Speaker 1: He was not familiar with Washington, and it was difficult
Speaker 1: to adjust his feelings and perceptions to its peculiarities. Coming
Speaker 1: out of the sweet sanity of the Bolton household, this was,
Speaker 1: by contrast, the maddest vanity fair one could conceive. It
Speaker 1: seemed to him a feverish, unhealthy atmosphere in which lunacy
Speaker 1: would be easily developed. He fancied that everybody attached to
Speaker 1: himself an exaggerated importance from the fact of being at
Speaker 1: the national capital, the center of political influence, the fountain
Speaker 1: of patronage, preferment, jobs, and opportunities. People were introduced to
Speaker 1: each other as from this or that state, not from
Speaker 1: cities or towns, and this gave a largeness to their
Speaker 1: representative feeling. All the women talked politics as naturally and
Speaker 1: glibly as they talked fashion or literature elsewhere. There was
Speaker 1: always some exciting topic at the capital, or some huge
Speaker 1: slander was rising up like a miasmic exhalation from the Potomac,
Speaker 1: threatening to settle. No one knew exactly where. Every other
Speaker 1: person was an aspirant for a place, or if he
Speaker 1: had one, for a better place or more pay. Almost
Speaker 1: every other one had some claim or interest or remedy
Speaker 1: to urge. Even the women were all advocates for the
Speaker 1: advancement of some person, and they violently espoused or denounced
Speaker 1: this or that measure as it would effect some relative
Speaker 1: acquaintance or friend. Love, travel, even death itself waited on
Speaker 1: the chances of the dies daily thrown in the two
Speaker 1: houses and the committee rooms there. If the measure went through,
Speaker 1: love could afford to ripen into marriage, and longing for
Speaker 1: foreign travel would have fruition. And it must have been
Speaker 1: only eternal hopes springing in the breast that kept alive
Speaker 1: numerous old claimants who for years and years had besieged
Speaker 1: the doors of Congress, and who looked as if they
Speaker 1: needed not so much an appropriation of money as six
Speaker 1: feet of ground. And those who stood so long waiting
Speaker 1: for success to bring them death were usually those who
Speaker 1: had a just claim. Representing states and talking of national
Speaker 1: and even international affairs as familiarly as neighbors at home.
Speaker 1: Talk of poor crops and the extravagance of their ministers
Speaker 1: was likely at first to impose upon Philip as to
Speaker 1: the importance of the people gathered here. There was a
Speaker 1: little newspaper editor from Phil's native town, the assistant on
Speaker 1: a Pendletonian weekly, who made his little annual joke about
Speaker 1: the first egg laid on our table, and who was
Speaker 1: the menial of every tradesman in the village and under
Speaker 1: bonds to him for frequent puffs, except the undertaker, about
Speaker 1: whose employment he was recklessly facetious. In Washington, he was
Speaker 1: an important man, correspondent and clerk of two House committees,
Speaker 1: a worker in politics, and a confident critic of every
Speaker 1: woman and every man. In Washington. He would be a consul,
Speaker 1: no doubt, by and by at some foreign port, of
Speaker 1: the language of which he was ignorant, though if ignorance
Speaker 1: of language were a qualification, he might have been a
Speaker 1: consul at home. His easy familiarity with great men was
Speaker 1: beautiful to see. And when Philip learned what a tremendous
Speaker 1: underground influence this little ignoramus had, he no longer wondered
Speaker 1: at the queer appointments and the queerer legislation. Philip was
Speaker 1: not long in discovering that people in Washington did not
Speaker 1: differ much from other people. They had the same meanness, generosities,
Speaker 1: and tastes. A Washington boarding house had the odor of
Speaker 1: a boarding house the world over. Colonel Sellers was as
Speaker 1: unchanged as any one Philip saw whom he had known elsewhere.
Speaker 1: Washington appeared to be the native element of this man.
Speaker 1: His pretensions were equal to any he encountered there. He
Speaker 1: saw nothing in its society that equaled that of Hawkeye.
Speaker 1: He sat down to no table that could not be
Speaker 1: unfavorably contrasted with his own at home. The most airy
Speaker 1: scheme inflated in the hot air of the Capitol only
Speaker 1: reached in magnitude some of his lesser fancies the byplay
Speaker 1: of his constructive imagination. The country is getting along very well,
Speaker 1: he said to Philip, but our public men are too timid.
Speaker 1: What we want is more money. I've told boutwell, so
Speaker 1: talk about basing the currency on gold. You might as
Speaker 1: well base it on pork. Gold is only one product.
Speaker 1: Base it on everything. You've got to do something for
Speaker 1: the West ah Am I to move my crops. We
Speaker 1: must have improvements. Grant's got the idea. We want a
Speaker 1: canal from the James River to the Mississippi. Government ought
Speaker 1: to build it. It was difficult to get the Colonel
Speaker 1: off from these large themes when he was once started.
Speaker 1: But Philip brought the conversation round to Laura and her
Speaker 1: reputation in the city. No, he said, I haven't noticed much.
Speaker 1: We've been so busy about this university. It will make
Speaker 1: Laura rich with the rest of us, and she has
Speaker 1: done nearly as much as if she were a man.
Speaker 1: She has great talent and will make a big match.
Speaker 1: I see the foreign ministers and that sort after her. Yes,
Speaker 1: there is talk, always will be about a pretty woman
Speaker 1: so much in public as she is. Tough. Stories come
Speaker 1: to me, but I put em away. Tain't likely one
Speaker 1: of cy Hawkins's children would do that, for she is
Speaker 1: the same as a child of his. I told her, though,
Speaker 1: to go slow, added the colonel, as if that mysterious
Speaker 1: admonition from him would set everything right. Do you know
Speaker 1: anything about a Colonel Selby? Know all about him, fine fellow,
Speaker 1: But he's got a wife, and I told him as
Speaker 1: a friend he'd better sheer off from Laura Seckon. He
Speaker 1: thought better of it and did. But Philip was not
Speaker 1: long in learning the truth. Courted as Laura was by
Speaker 1: a certain class, and still admitted into society that nevertheless
Speaker 1: buzzed with disreputable stories about her, she had lost character
Speaker 1: with the best people. Her intimacy with Selby was open gossip,
Speaker 1: and there were winks and thrustings of the tongue in
Speaker 1: any group of men. When she passed by. It was
Speaker 1: clear enough that Harry's delusion must be broken up, and
Speaker 1: that no such feeble obstacle as his passion could interpose
Speaker 1: would turn Laura from her fate. Philip determined to see
Speaker 1: her and put himself in possession of the truth as
Speaker 1: he suspected it, in order to show Harry his folly. Laura,
Speaker 1: after her last conversation with Harry, had a new sense
Speaker 1: of her position. She had noticed before the signs of
Speaker 1: a change in manner towards her, a little less respect
Speaker 1: perhaps from men, and an avoidance by women. She had
Speaker 1: attributed this latter partly to jealousy of her, for no
Speaker 1: one is willing to acknowledge a fault in himself when
Speaker 1: a more agreeable motive can be found for the estrangement
Speaker 1: of his acquaintances. But now if society had turned on her,
Speaker 1: she would defy it. It was not in her nature
Speaker 1: to shrink. She knew she had been wronged, and she
Speaker 1: knew that she had no remedy. What she heard of
Speaker 1: Colonel Selby's proposed departure alarmed her more than anything else,
Speaker 1: and she calmly determined that if he was deceiving her
Speaker 1: the second time, it should be the last. Let society
Speaker 1: finish the tragedy if it liked. She was indifferent what
Speaker 1: came after. At the first opportunity she charged Selby with
Speaker 1: his intention to abandon her. He unblushingly denied it. He
Speaker 1: had not thought of going to Europe. He had only
Speaker 1: been amusing himself with Sellar's schemes. He swore that as
Speaker 1: soon as she succeeded with her bill, he would fly
Speaker 1: with her to any part of the world. She did
Speaker 1: not quite believe him, for she saw that he feared her,
Speaker 1: and she began to suspect that were the protestations of
Speaker 1: a coward to gain time. But she showed him no doubts.
Speaker 1: She only watched his movements day by day, and always
Speaker 1: held herself ready to act promptly. When Philip came into
Speaker 1: the presence of this attractive woman, he could not realize
Speaker 1: that she was the subject of all the scandal he
Speaker 1: had heard. She received him with quite the old hawkeye
Speaker 1: openness and cordiality, and fell to talking at once of
Speaker 1: their little acquaintance there, And it seemed impossible that he
Speaker 1: could ever say to her what he had come determined
Speaker 1: to say. Such a man as Philip has only one
Speaker 1: standard by which to judge women. Laura recognized that fact
Speaker 1: no doubt. The better part of her woman's nature saw it.
Speaker 1: Such a man might years ago not now have changed
Speaker 1: her nature and made the issue of her life so different.
Speaker 1: Even after her cruel abandonment, she had a dim feeling
Speaker 1: of this, and she would like now to stand well
Speaker 1: with him. The spark of truth and honor that was
Speaker 1: left in her was elicited by his presence. It was
Speaker 1: this influence that governed her conduct in this interview. I
Speaker 1: have come, said Philip, in his direct manner, from my friend,
Speaker 1: mister Brierly. You are not ignorant of his feelings towards you.
Speaker 1: Perhaps not, But perhaps you do not know you who
Speaker 1: have so much admiration, how sincere and overmastering his love
Speaker 1: is for you. Philip would not have spoken so plainly
Speaker 1: if he had in mind anything except to draw from
Speaker 1: Laura something that would end Harry's passion. And is sincere
Speaker 1: love so rare, mister Sterling, asked Laura, moving her foot
Speaker 1: a little and speaking with a shade of sarcasm. Perhaps
Speaker 1: not in Washington, replied Philip, tempted into a similar tone.
Speaker 1: Excuse my bluntness, he continued, But would the knowledge of
Speaker 1: his love? Would his devotion make any difference to you
Speaker 1: in your Washington life? In respect to what asked Laura, quickly,
Speaker 1: well to others, I won't acquiv kate to Colonel Selby.
Speaker 1: Laura's face flushed with anger or shame. She looked steadily
Speaker 1: at Philip and began, but what rights, sir by, the
Speaker 1: right of friendship? Interrupted Philip stoutly. It may matter little
Speaker 1: to you, it is everything to him. He has a
Speaker 1: quixotic notion that you would turn back from what is
Speaker 1: before you for his sake. You cannot be ignorant of
Speaker 1: what all the city is talking of. Philip said this determinedly,
Speaker 1: and with some bitterness. It was a full minute before
Speaker 1: Laura spoke. Both had risen Philip as if to go,
Speaker 1: and Laura in suppressed excitement. When she spoke, her voice
Speaker 1: was very unsteady, and she looked down. Yes, I know,
Speaker 1: I perfectly understand what you mean. Mister Brierly is nothing,
Speaker 1: simply nothing. He is a moth singed, that is all.
Speaker 1: The trifler with women thought he was a wasp. I
Speaker 1: have no pity for him, not the least. You may
Speaker 1: tell him not to make a fool of himself and
Speaker 1: to keep away. I say this on your account, not his.
Speaker 1: You are not like him. It is enough for me
Speaker 1: that you wanted so, mister Sterling. She continued looking up,
Speaker 1: and there were tears in her eyes that contradicted the
Speaker 1: hardness of her language. You might not pity him. If
Speaker 1: you knew my history, perhaps you would not wonder at
Speaker 1: some things you hear. No, it is useless to ask
Speaker 1: me why it must be so. You can't make a
Speaker 1: life over. Society wouldn't let you if you would, and
Speaker 1: mine must be lived as it is there, sir, I
Speaker 1: am not offended, but it is useless for you to
Speaker 1: say anything more. Philip went away with his heart lightened
Speaker 1: about Harry, but profoundly saddened by the glimpse of what
Speaker 1: this woman might have been. He told Harry all that
Speaker 1: was necessary of the conversation. She was bent on going
Speaker 1: her own way. He had not the ghost of a chance.
Speaker 1: He was a fool, she had said for thinking he had,
Speaker 1: and Harry accepted it meekly and made up his own
Speaker 1: mind that Philip didn't know much about women. End of
Speaker 1: Chapter forty four.