Speaker 1: This is section thirty six 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 thirty six. In due time, Laura alighted at the
Speaker 1: bookstore and began to look at the titles of the
Speaker 1: handsome array of books on the counter. A dapper clerk
Speaker 1: of perhaps nineteen or twenty years, with hair accurately parted
Speaker 1: and surprisingly slick, came bustling up and leaned over with
Speaker 1: a pretty smile and an affable can, I was there
Speaker 1: any particular book you wish to see? Have you tains England?
Speaker 1: Beg pardon Taine's notes on England. The young gentleman scratched
Speaker 1: the side of his nose with a cedar pencil, which
Speaker 1: he took down from its bracket on the side of
Speaker 1: his head, and reflected a moment ah, I see, with
Speaker 1: a bright smile. Train you mean not Tayne, George Francis Trayne. No, ma'am,
Speaker 1: we I mean Taine. If I may take the liberty,
Speaker 1: the clerk reflected again, Then Tayne Taine. Is it hymns? No,
Speaker 1: it isn't hymns. It is a volume that is making
Speaker 1: a deal of talk just now, and is very widely known,
Speaker 1: except among parties who sell it. The clerk glanced at
Speaker 1: her face to see if a sarcasm might not lurk
Speaker 1: somewhere in that obscure speech. But the gentle simplicity of
Speaker 1: the beautiful eyes that met his banish that suspicion. He
Speaker 1: went away and conferred with the proprietor. Both appeared to
Speaker 1: be nonplussed. They thought and talked, and talked and thought,
Speaker 1: my turns. Then both came forward, and the proprietor said,
Speaker 1: is it an American book? Ma'am? No, it is an
Speaker 1: American reprint of an English translation. Oh yes, yes, I
Speaker 1: remember now. We are expecting it every day. It isn't
Speaker 1: out yet. I think you must be mistaken because you
Speaker 1: advertised it a week ago. Why no, can that be so? Yes,
Speaker 1: I am sure of it, And besides, here is the
Speaker 1: book itself on the counter. She bought it, and the
Speaker 1: proprietor retired from the field. Then she asked the clerk
Speaker 1: for the autocrat of the breakfast table, and was pained
Speaker 1: to see the admiration her beauty had inspired in him
Speaker 1: fade out of his face. He said, with cold dignity
Speaker 1: that cookbooks were somewhat out of their line, but he
Speaker 1: would order it if she desired it. She said, no,
Speaker 1: never mind. Then she fell to conning the titles again,
Speaker 1: finding a delight in the inspection of the Hawthorns, the Longfellows,
Speaker 1: the Tennysons, and other favorites of her idle hours. Meantime,
Speaker 1: the clerk's eyes were busy, and no doubt his admiration
Speaker 1: was returning again, or maybe he was only gaging her
Speaker 1: probable literary taste by some sagacious system of admeasurement only
Speaker 1: known to his guilt. Now he began to assist her
Speaker 1: in making a selection, but his efforts met with no success. Indeed,
Speaker 1: they only annoyed her and unpleasantly interrupted her meditations. Presently,
Speaker 1: while she was holding a copy of Venetian Life in
Speaker 1: her hand and running over a familiar passage here and there,
Speaker 1: the clerk said, briskly, snatching up a paper covered volume
Speaker 1: and striking the counter a smart blow with it to
Speaker 1: dislodge the dust. Now here's a work that we've sold
Speaker 1: a lot of. Everybody that's read it likes it, and
Speaker 1: he intruded it under her nose. It's a book that
Speaker 1: I can recommend The Pirate's Doom or the Last of
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers. I think it's one of the best things
Speaker 1: that's come out this season. Laura pushed it gently aside
Speaker 1: with her hand and went on filching from Venetian Life.
Speaker 1: I believe I do not want it, she said. The
Speaker 1: clerk hunted around a while, glancing at one title and
Speaker 1: then another, but apparently not finding what he wanted. However,
Speaker 1: he succeeded at last said he have you ever read this, ma'am.
Speaker 1: I am sure you'll like it. It's by the author
Speaker 1: of The Hooligans of Hackensack. It is full of love,
Speaker 1: troubles and mysteries and all sorts of such things. The
Speaker 1: heroine strangles her own mother. I just glance at the title.
Speaker 1: Please gonderil the Vampire or the Dance of Death. And
Speaker 1: here is the Jockist's Own Treasury, or the funny Fellow's
Speaker 1: bosom Friend, the Funniest Thing. I've read it four times, ma'am,
Speaker 1: and I can laugh at the very sight of it. Yet,
Speaker 1: and gonderil, I assure you it is the most splendid
Speaker 1: book I ever read. I know you will like these books, ma'am,
Speaker 1: because I've read them myself, and I know what they are. Oh.
Speaker 1: I was perplexed, But I see how it is now.
Speaker 1: You must have thought I asked you to tell me
Speaker 1: what sort of books I wanted for. I am apt
Speaker 1: to say things which I don't really mean when I
Speaker 1: am absent minded. I suppose I did ask you didn't.
Speaker 1: I no, ma'am, But I yes, I I must have
Speaker 1: done it, else you would not have offered your services
Speaker 1: for fear it might be rude. But don't be troubled.
Speaker 1: It was all my fault. I ought not to have
Speaker 1: been so heedless. I ought not to have asked you,
Speaker 1: but you didn't ask me, ma'am. We always help customers
Speaker 1: all we can. You see our experience living right among
Speaker 1: books all the time. That sort of thing makes us
Speaker 1: able to help a customer make a selection. You know, now,
Speaker 1: does it? Indeed? Is it part of your business? Then? Yes'm,
Speaker 1: we always help. How good it is of you. Some
Speaker 1: people would think it rather obtrusive, perhaps, but I don't.
Speaker 1: I think it is real kindness, even charity. Some people
Speaker 1: jump to conclusions without any thought. You have noticed that, oh, yes,
Speaker 1: said the clerk, a little perplexed as to whether to
Speaker 1: feel comfortable or the reverse. Oh, yes, indeed, I've often
Speaker 1: noticed that, ma'am. Yes, they jumped to conclusions with an
Speaker 1: absurd heedlessness. Now, some people would think it odd that
Speaker 1: because you, with the budding tastes and the innocent enthusiasms
Speaker 1: natural to your time of life, enjoyed the vampires and
Speaker 1: the volume of nursery jokes, you should imagine that an
Speaker 1: older person would delight in them too. But I do
Speaker 1: not think it odd at all. I think it natural,
Speaker 1: perfectly natural in you, and kind too. You look like
Speaker 1: a person who not only finds a deep pleasure in
Speaker 1: any little thing in the way of literature that strikes
Speaker 1: you forcibly, but is willing and glad to share that
Speaker 1: pleasure with others. And that I think is noble and admirable,
Speaker 1: Very noble and admirable. I think we ought all to
Speaker 1: share our pleasures with others and do what we can
Speaker 1: to make each other happy. Do not you, Oh yes, oh, yes, indeed, yes,
Speaker 1: you are quite right, ma'am. But he was getting unmistakably uncomfortable. Now,
Speaker 1: notwithstanding Laura's confiding sociability and all most affectionate tone. Yes, indeed,
Speaker 1: many people would think that what a bookseller or perhaps
Speaker 1: his clerk knows about literature as literature in contradistinction to
Speaker 1: its character as merchandise, would hardly be of much assistance
Speaker 1: to a person, that is to an adult, of course,
Speaker 1: in the selection of food for the mind, except of
Speaker 1: course wrapping paper or twine or wafers or something like that.
Speaker 1: But I never feel that way. I feel that whatever
Speaker 1: service you offer me, you offer with a good heart,
Speaker 1: and I am as grateful for it as if it
Speaker 1: were the greatest boon to me, And it is useful
Speaker 1: to me. It is bound to be so. It cannot
Speaker 1: be otherwise. If you show me a book which you
Speaker 1: have read, not skimmed over or merely glanced at, but read,
Speaker 1: and you tell me that you enjoyed it, and that
Speaker 1: you could read it three or four times, then I
Speaker 1: know what book I want, Thank you, the to avoid. Yes, indeed,
Speaker 1: I think that no information never comes amiss in this world.
Speaker 1: Once or twice I have traveled in the cars, and
Speaker 1: there you know, the peanut boy always measures you with
Speaker 1: his eye and hands you out a book of murders.
Speaker 1: If you are fond of theology or Tupper, or a
Speaker 1: dictionary or T. S. Arthur, If you are fond of poetry,
Speaker 1: or he hands you a volume of distressing jokes or
Speaker 1: a copy of the American Miscellany, if you particularly dislike
Speaker 1: that sort of literary fatty degeneration of the heart just
Speaker 1: for the world, like a pleasant spoken, well meaning gentleman
Speaker 1: in any book store. But here I am running on
Speaker 1: as if business men had nothing to do but listen
Speaker 1: to women talk. You must pardon me, for I was
Speaker 1: not thinking, and you must let me thank you again
Speaker 1: for your helping me. I read a good deal and
Speaker 1: shall be in nearly every day, and I would be
Speaker 1: sorry to have you think me a customer who talks
Speaker 1: too much and buys too little. Might I ask you
Speaker 1: to give me the time ah two twenty two, Thank
Speaker 1: you very much. I will set mine while I have
Speaker 1: the opportunity. But she could not get her watch open.
Speaker 1: Apparently she tried and tried again. Then the clerk, trembling
Speaker 1: at his own audacity, begged to be allowed to assist.
Speaker 1: She allowed him. He succeeded and was radiant under the
Speaker 1: sweet influences of her pleased face and her seductively worded acknowledgments.
Speaker 1: With gratification, then he gave her the exact time again,
Speaker 1: and anxiously watched her turn the hands slowly till they
Speaker 1: reached the precise spot without accident or loss of life.
Speaker 1: And then he looked as happy as a man who
Speaker 1: had helped a fellow being through a momentous undertaking, and
Speaker 1: was grateful to know that he had not lived in vain.
Speaker 1: Laura thanked him once more. The words were music to
Speaker 1: his ear, but what were they compared to the ravishing
Speaker 1: smile with which she flooded his whole system. When she
Speaker 1: bowed her adieu and turned away, he was no longer
Speaker 1: suffering torture in the pillory, where she had had him
Speaker 1: trusted up during so many distressing moments. But he belonged
Speaker 1: to the list of her conquests and was a flattered
Speaker 1: and happy thrall with the dawn light of love breaking
Speaker 1: over the eastern elevations of his heart. It was about
Speaker 1: the hour now for the Chairman of the House Committee
Speaker 1: on Benevolent Appropriations to make his appearance, and Laura stepped
Speaker 1: to the door to reconnoiter. She glanced up the street,
Speaker 1: and sure enough end of Chapter thirty six