Speaker 1: The Gilded Age, section thirty four. This LibriVox recording is
Speaker 1: in the public domain. The Gilded Age, A Tale of
Speaker 1: Today by Mark Twain and C. D. Warner, Chapter thirty four.
Speaker 1: When Laura had been in Washington three months, she was
Speaker 1: still the same person in one respect that she was
Speaker 1: when she arrived there. That is to say, she still
Speaker 1: bore the name of Laura Hawkins. Otherwise she was perceptibly changed.
Speaker 1: She had arrived in a state of grievous uncertainty as
Speaker 1: to what manner of woman she was physically and intellectually
Speaker 1: as compared with Eastern women. She was well satisfied now
Speaker 1: that her beauty was confessed, her mind a grade above
Speaker 1: the average, and her powers of fascination rather extraordinary. So
Speaker 1: she was at ease upon those points. When she arrived
Speaker 1: she was possessed of habits of economy, and not possessed
Speaker 1: of money. Now she dressed elaborately, gave but little thought
Speaker 1: to the cost of things, and was very well fortified financially.
Speaker 1: She kept her mother and Washington freely supplied with money,
Speaker 1: and did the same by Colonel Sellers, who always insisted
Speaker 1: upon giving his note for loans with interest. He was
Speaker 1: rigid upon that she must take interest. And one of
Speaker 1: the colonel's greatest satisfactions was to go over his accounts
Speaker 1: and note what a handsome sum this accruing interest amounted to,
Speaker 1: and what a comfortable, though modest support it would yield
Speaker 1: Laura in case reverses should overtake her. In truth, he
Speaker 1: could not help feeling that he was an efficient shield
Speaker 1: for her against poverty, and so if her expensive ways
Speaker 1: ever troubled him for a brief moment, he presently dismissed
Speaker 1: the thought and said to himself, let her go on.
Speaker 1: Even if she loses everything, she is still safe. This
Speaker 1: interest will always afford her a good, easy income. Laura
Speaker 1: was on excellent terms with a great many members of Congress,
Speaker 1: and there was an undercurrent of suspicion in some quarters
Speaker 1: that she was one of that detested class known as lobbyists.
Speaker 1: But what bell could escape slander in such a city.
Speaker 1: Fair minded people declined to condemn her on mere suspicion,
Speaker 1: and so the injurious talk made no very damaging headway.
Speaker 1: She was very gay now and very celebrated, and she
Speaker 1: might well expect to be assailed by many kinds of gossip.
Speaker 1: She was growing used to celebrity, and could already sit
Speaker 1: calm and seemingly unconscious under the fire of fifty lorgnettes
Speaker 1: in the theater, or even overhear the low voice that
Speaker 1: she as she passed along the street without betraying annoyance.
Speaker 1: The whole air was full of a vague, vast scheme
Speaker 1: which was to eventuate in filling Laura's pockets with millions
Speaker 1: of dollars. Some had one idea of the scheme, and
Speaker 1: some another, but nobody had any exact knowledge upon the subject.
Speaker 1: All that any one felt sure about was that Laura's
Speaker 1: landed estates were princely in value and extent, and that
Speaker 1: the government was anxious to get hold of them for
Speaker 1: public purposes, and that Laura was willing to make the sale,
Speaker 1: but not at all anxious about the matter, and not
Speaker 1: at all in a hurry. It was whispered that Senator
Speaker 1: Dilworthy was a stumbling block in the way of an
Speaker 1: immediate sale, because he was resolved that the government should
Speaker 1: not have the lands, except with the understanding that they
Speaker 1: should be devoted to the uplifting of the Negro race.
Speaker 1: Laura did not care what they were devoted to. It
Speaker 1: was said a world of very different gossip to the contrary. Notwithstanding,
Speaker 1: but there were several other heirs, and they would be
Speaker 1: guided entirely by the Senator's wishes. And finally, many people
Speaker 1: averred that while it would be easy to sell the
Speaker 1: lands to the government for the benefit of the negro
Speaker 1: by resorting to the usual methods of influencing votes, Senator
Speaker 1: Dilworthy was unwilling to have so noble a charity sullied
Speaker 1: by any taint of corruption. He was resolved that not
Speaker 1: a vote should be bought. Nobody could get anything definite
Speaker 1: from Laura about these matters, and so gossip had to
Speaker 1: feed itself, chiefly upon guesses. But the effect of it
Speaker 1: all was that Laura was considered to be very wealthy,
Speaker 1: and likely to be vastly more so in a little while. Consequently,
Speaker 1: she was much courted and as much envied. Her wealth
Speaker 1: attracted many suitors. Perhaps they came to worship her riches,
Speaker 1: but they remained to worship her. Some of the noblest
Speaker 1: men of the time succumb to her fascinations. She frowned
Speaker 1: upon no lover when he made his first advances, but
Speaker 1: by and by when she was hopelessly enthralled he learned
Speaker 1: from her own lips that she had formed a resolution
Speaker 1: never to marry. Then he would go away hating and
Speaker 1: cursing the whole sex, and she would calmly add his
Speaker 1: scalp to her string, while she mused upon the bitter
Speaker 1: day that Colonel Selby trampled her love and her pride
Speaker 1: in the dust. In time, it came to be said
Speaker 1: that her way was paved with broken hearts. Poor Washington
Speaker 1: gradually woke up to the fact that he, too was
Speaker 1: an intellectual marvel, as well as his gifted sister. He
Speaker 1: could not conceive how it had come about. It did
Speaker 1: not occur to him that the gossip about his family's
Speaker 1: great wealth had anything to do with it. He could
Speaker 1: not account for it by any process of reasoning, and
Speaker 1: was simply obliged to accept the fact and give up
Speaker 1: trying to solve the riddle. He found himself dragged into
Speaker 1: society and courted, wondered at, and envied very much, as
Speaker 1: if he were one of those foreign barbers who flit
Speaker 1: over here now and then with a self conferred title
Speaker 1: of nobility, and marry some rich fool's absurd daughter, sometimes
Speaker 1: at a dinner party or reception he would find himself
Speaker 1: the center of interest and feel unutterably uncomfortable in the discovery.
Speaker 1: Being obliged to say something, he would mind his brain
Speaker 1: and put in a blast, And when the smoke and
Speaker 1: flying debris had cleared away, the result would be what
Speaker 1: seemed to him but a poor little intellectual clod of
Speaker 1: dirt or two. And then he would be astonished to
Speaker 1: see everybody as lost in admiration as if he had
Speaker 1: brought up a ton or two of virgin gold. Every
Speaker 1: remark he made delighted his hearers and compelled their applause.
Speaker 1: He overheard people say he was exceedingly bright. They were
Speaker 1: chiefly mammas and marriageable young ladies. He found that some
Speaker 1: of his good things were being repeated about the town.
Speaker 1: Whenever he heard of an instance of this kind, he
Speaker 1: would keep that particular remark in mind and analyze it
Speaker 1: at home in private. At first he could not see
Speaker 1: that the remark was anything better than a parrot might originate.
Speaker 1: But by and by he began to feel that perhaps
Speaker 1: he underrated his powers. And after that he used to
Speaker 1: analyze his good things with a deal of comfort, and
Speaker 1: find in them a brilliancy which would have been unapparent
Speaker 1: to him in earlier days, and then he would make
Speaker 1: a note of that good thing and say it again
Speaker 1: the first time he found himself in a new company.
Speaker 1: Presently he had saved up quite a repertoire of brilliancies,
Speaker 1: and after that he confined himself to repeating these, and
Speaker 1: ceased to originate any more lest he might injure his
Speaker 1: reputation by an unlucky effort. He was constantly having young
Speaker 1: ladies thrust upon his notice at receptions or left upon
Speaker 1: his hands at parties, and in time he began to
Speaker 1: feel that he was being deliberately persecuted in this way,
Speaker 1: and after that he could not enjoy society because of
Speaker 1: his constant dread of these female ambushes and surprises. He
Speaker 1: was distressed to find that nearly every time he showed
Speaker 1: a young lady of polite attention, he was straightway reported
Speaker 1: to be engaged to her. And as some of these
Speaker 1: reports got into the newspapers, occasionally he had to keep
Speaker 1: writing to Louise that they were lies, and she must
Speaker 1: believe in him and not mind them or allow them
Speaker 1: to grieve her. Washington was as much in the dark
Speaker 1: as anybody with regard to the great wealth that was
Speaker 1: hovering in the air and seemingly on the point of
Speaker 1: tumbling into the family pocket. Laura would give him no satisfaction.
Speaker 1: All she would say was wait, be patient, you will see.
Speaker 1: But will it be soon? Laura? It will not be
Speaker 1: very long, I think, But what makes you think so?
Speaker 1: I have reasons and good ones. Just wait and be patient.
Speaker 1: But is it going to be as much as people
Speaker 1: say it is? What do they say it is? Oh?
Speaker 1: Ever so much? Millions? Yes, it will be a great sum.
Speaker 1: But how great, Laura? Will it be millions? Yes, you
Speaker 1: may call it that. Yes, it will be millions. There
Speaker 1: Now does that satisfy you? Splendid? I can wait. I
Speaker 1: can wait patiently, ever so patiently. Once I was near
Speaker 1: selling the land for twenty thousand dollars, once for thirty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, once after that for seven thousand dollars, and
Speaker 1: once for forty thousand dollars. But something always told me
Speaker 1: not to do it. What a fool I would have
Speaker 1: been to sell it for such a beggarly trifle. It
Speaker 1: is the land that's to bring the money, isn't it, Laura.
Speaker 1: You can tell me that much, can't you. Yes, I
Speaker 1: don't mind saying that much. It is the land. But mind,
Speaker 1: don't ever hint that you got it from me. Don't
Speaker 1: mention me in the matter at all. Washington, all right,
Speaker 1: I won't millions, isn't it splendid. I mean to look
Speaker 1: around for a building lot, a lot with fine ornamental
Speaker 1: shrubbery and all that sort of thing. I will do
Speaker 1: it to day. And I might as well see an
Speaker 1: architect too, and get him to go to work at
Speaker 1: a plan for a house. I don't intend to spare
Speaker 1: any expense. I mean to have the noblest house that
Speaker 1: money can build. Then, after a pause, he did not
Speaker 1: notice Laura's smiles. Laura, would you lay the main hall
Speaker 1: in in caustic tiles or just in fancy patterns of hardwood?
Speaker 1: Laura laughed, a good old fashioned laugh that had more
Speaker 1: of her former natural self about it than any sound
Speaker 1: that ha issued from her mouth in many weeks. And
Speaker 1: she said, you don't change, Washington. You still begin to
Speaker 1: squander a fortune right and left the instant you hear
Speaker 1: of it in the distance, you never wait till the
Speaker 1: foremost dollar of it arrives within a hundred miles of you.
Speaker 1: And she kissed her brother good bye, and left him
Speaker 1: weltering in his dreams, so to speak. He got up
Speaker 1: and walked the floor feverishly during two hours, and when
Speaker 1: he sat down he had married Louise, built a house,
Speaker 1: reared a family, married them off, spent upwards of eight
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars on mere luxuries, and died worth twelve millions.
Speaker 1: End of chapter thirty four.