Speaker 1: This is section nineteen of The Gilded Age. This LibriVox
Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. The Gilded Age, A
Speaker 1: Tale of to Day by Mark Twain and C. D. Warner,
Speaker 1: Chapter nineteen. Mister Harry Brierly drew his pay as an
Speaker 1: engineer while he was living at the City Hotel in Hawkeye.
Speaker 1: Mister Thompson had been kind enough to say that it
Speaker 1: didn't make any difference whether he was in the corps
Speaker 1: or not. And although Harry protested to the Colonel Daily
Speaker 1: and to Washington Hawkins that he must go back at
Speaker 1: once to the line and superintend the layout with reference
Speaker 1: to his contract, yet he did not go, but wrote
Speaker 1: instead long letters to Philip instructing him to keep his
Speaker 1: eye out and to let him know when any difficulty
Speaker 1: occurred that required his presence. Meantime, Harry blossomed out in
Speaker 1: the society of Hawkeye, as he did in any society
Speaker 1: where fortune cast him, and he had the slightest opportunity
Speaker 1: to expand. Indeed, the talents of a rich and accomplished
Speaker 1: young fellow like Harry were not likely to go unappreciated
Speaker 1: in such a place. A land operator engaged in vast
Speaker 1: speculations a favorite in the select circles of New York
Speaker 1: in correspondence with brokers and bankers, intimate with public men
Speaker 1: at Washington, one who could play the guitar and touch
Speaker 1: the banjo lightly, and who had an eye for a
Speaker 1: pretty girl and knew the language of flattery was welcome
Speaker 1: everywhere in Hawkeye. Even Miss Laura Hawkins thought it worth
Speaker 1: while to use her fascinations upon him, and to endeavor
Speaker 1: to entangle the volatile fellow in the meshes of her
Speaker 1: attractions dead, said Harry to the Colonel. She's a superb creature.
Speaker 1: She'd make a stir in New York. Money or no money.
Speaker 1: There are men I know who'd give her a railroad
Speaker 1: or an opera house, or whatever she wanted. At least
Speaker 1: they'd promise. Harry had a way of looking at women
Speaker 1: as he looked at anything else in the world he wanted,
Speaker 1: and he half resolved to appropriate Miss Laura during his
Speaker 1: stay in Hawkeye. Perhaps the Colonel divined his thoughts or
Speaker 1: was offended at Harry's talk, for he replied, no nonsense,
Speaker 1: mister Brierly. Nonsense won't do in Hawkeye, not with my friends.
Speaker 1: The Hawkins's blood is good blood. All the way from Tennessee.
Speaker 1: The Hawkinses are under the weather now, but their Tennessee
Speaker 1: property is millions when it comes into market. Of course, Colonel,
Speaker 1: not the least offense intended. But you can see she
Speaker 1: is a fascinating woman. I was only thinking as to
Speaker 1: this appropriation. Now, what such a woman could do in Washington?
Speaker 1: All correct, too, All correct, common thing, I assure you.
Speaker 1: In Washington, the wives of senators, representatives, cabinet officers, all
Speaker 1: sorts of wives, and some who are not wives use
Speaker 1: their influence. You want an appointment, do you go to
Speaker 1: Senator X? Not much you get on the right side
Speaker 1: of his wife. Is it an appropriation? You'd go straight
Speaker 1: to the committee or to the Interior Office. I suppose
Speaker 1: you'd learn better than that. It takes a woman to
Speaker 1: get anything through the Land Office. I tell you, miss
Speaker 1: Laura would fascinate an appropriation right through the Senate and
Speaker 1: the House of Representatives in one session. If she was
Speaker 1: in Washington as your friend, Colonel, of course, as your friend,
Speaker 1: would you have her sign our petition? Asked the colonel innocently.
Speaker 1: Harry laughed. Women don't get anything by petitioning Congress. Nobody does.
Speaker 1: That's for form. Petitions are referred to somewhere, and that's
Speaker 1: the last of them. You can't refer a handsome woman
Speaker 1: so easily when she is present. They prefer em mostly.
Speaker 1: The petition, however, was elaborately drawn up with a glowing
Speaker 1: description of Napoleon and the adjacent country, and a statement
Speaker 1: of the absolute necessity to the prosperity of that region,
Speaker 1: and of one of the stations on the great through
Speaker 1: route to the Pacific, of the immediate improvement of Columbus River.
Speaker 1: To this was appended a map of the city and
Speaker 1: a survey of the river. It was signed by all
Speaker 1: the people at Stone's Landing who could write their names,
Speaker 1: by Colonel Bariah Sellers, and the colonel agreed to have
Speaker 1: the names headed by all the senators and representatives from
Speaker 1: the state, and by a sprinkling of ex governors and
Speaker 1: ex members of Congress. When completed, it was a formidable document.
Speaker 1: Its preparation and that of more minute plots of the
Speaker 1: new city, consumed the valuable time of Sellers and Harry
Speaker 1: for many weeks, and served to keep them both in
Speaker 1: the highest spirits in the eyes of Washington Hawkins. Harry
Speaker 1: was a superior being a man who was able to
Speaker 1: bring things to pass in a way that excited his enthusiasm.
Speaker 1: He never tired of listening to his stories of what
Speaker 1: he had done and of what he was going to do.
Speaker 1: As for Washington, Harry thought he was a man of
Speaker 1: ability and comprehension, but too visionary, he told the colonel.
Speaker 1: The colonel said he might be right, but he had
Speaker 1: never noticed anything visionary about him. He's got plans, sir,
Speaker 1: God bless my soul. At his age, I was full
Speaker 1: of plans, but experience sobers a man. I never touch
Speaker 1: anything now that hasn't been weighed in my judgment. And
Speaker 1: when Mariah Sellers puts his judgment on a thing, there
Speaker 1: it is whatever might have been Harry's intentions. With regard
Speaker 1: to Laura, he saw more and more of her every day,
Speaker 1: until he got to be restless and nervous when he
Speaker 1: was not with her. That consummate artist in passion allowed
Speaker 1: him to believe that the fascination was mainly on his side,
Speaker 1: and so worked upon his vanity while inflaming his ardor
Speaker 1: that he scarcely knew what he was about. Her coolness
Speaker 1: and coyness were even made to appear the simple precautions
Speaker 1: of a modest timidity, and attracted him even more than
Speaker 1: the little tenderness into which she was occasionally surprised. He
Speaker 1: could never be away from her long day or evening,
Speaker 1: and in a short time there intimacy was the town talk.
Speaker 1: She played with him so adroitly that Harry thought she
Speaker 1: was absorbed in love for him. And yet he was
Speaker 1: amazed that he did not get on faster in his conquest.
Speaker 1: And when he thought of it, he was piqued as well.
Speaker 1: A country girl, poor enough, that was evident, living with
Speaker 1: her family in a cheap and most unattractive frame house
Speaker 1: such as Carpenter's build in America, scantily furnished and unadorned,
Speaker 1: without the adventitious aids of dress or jewels or the
Speaker 1: fine manners of society. Harry couldn't understand it, but she
Speaker 1: fascinated him and held him just beyond the line of
Speaker 1: absolute familiarity. At the same time, while he was with her,
Speaker 1: she made him forget that the Hawkins House was nothing
Speaker 1: but a wooden tenement with four small square rooms on
Speaker 1: the ground floor and a half story. It might have
Speaker 1: been a palace for aught, he knew. Perhaps Laura was
Speaker 1: older than she was at any rate, at that ripe age,
Speaker 1: when beauty in woman seems more solid than in the
Speaker 1: budding period of girlhood, and she had come to understand
Speaker 1: her powers perfectly, and to know exactly how much of
Speaker 1: the susceptibility and archness of the girl it was profitable
Speaker 1: to retain. She saw that many women with the best
Speaker 1: intentions make a mistake of carrying too much girlishness into womanhood.
Speaker 1: Such a woman would have attracted Harry at any time,
Speaker 1: but only a woman with a cool brain and exquisite
Speaker 1: art could have made him lose his head in this way.
Speaker 1: For Harry thought himself a man of the world, the
Speaker 1: young fellow never dreamed that he was merely being experimented on.
Speaker 1: He was to her a man of another society and
Speaker 1: another culture, different from that she had any knowledge of,
Speaker 1: except in books, and she was not unwilling to try
Speaker 1: on him the fascinations of her mind and person. For
Speaker 1: Laura had her dreams. She detested the narrow limits in
Speaker 1: which her lot was cast. She hated poverty. Much of
Speaker 1: her reading had been of modern works of fiction written
Speaker 1: by her own sex, which had revealed to her something
Speaker 1: of her own powers and given her indeed an exaggerated
Speaker 1: notion of the influence, the wealth, the position a woman
Speaker 1: may attain who has beauty and talent and ambition and
Speaker 1: a little culture, and is not too scrupulous in the
Speaker 1: use of them. She wanted to be rich, she wanted luxury,
Speaker 1: She wanted men at her feet her slaves, and she
Speaker 1: had not, thanks to some of the novels she had read,
Speaker 1: the nicest discrimination between notoriety and reputation. Perhaps she did
Speaker 1: not know how fatal notoriety usually is to the bloom
Speaker 1: of womanhood. With the other Hawkins children, Laura had been
Speaker 1: brought up in the belief that they had inherited a
Speaker 1: fortune in the Tennessee lands. She did not, by any
Speaker 1: means share all the delusion of the family, but her
Speaker 1: brain was not seldom busy with schemes about it. Washington
Speaker 1: seemed to her only to dream of it and to
Speaker 1: be willing to wait for its riches to fall upon
Speaker 1: him in a golden shower. But she was impatient and
Speaker 1: wished she were a man to take hold of the business.
Speaker 1: You men must enjoy your schemes and your activity and
Speaker 1: liberty to go about the world, she said to Harry
Speaker 1: one day, when he had been talking of New York
Speaker 1: and Washington and his incessant engagements. Oh yes, replied that
Speaker 1: martyr to business. It's all well enough if you don't
Speaker 1: have too much of it. But it only has one object.
Speaker 1: What is that? If a woman doesn't know, it's useless
Speaker 1: to tell her. What do you suppose I am staying
Speaker 1: in Hawkeye for week after week when I ought to
Speaker 1: be with my corps. I suppose it's your business with
Speaker 1: Colonel Sellers about Napoleon. You've always told me, so, answered Laura,
Speaker 1: with a look intended to contradict her words. And now
Speaker 1: I tell you that is all arranged. I suppose you'll
Speaker 1: tell me I ought to go Harry, exclaimed Laura, touching
Speaker 1: his arm and letting her pretty hand rest there a moment.
Speaker 1: Why should I want you to go away? The only
Speaker 1: person in Hawkeye who understands me, but you refuse to
Speaker 1: understand me, replied Harry, flattered but still petulant. You are
Speaker 1: like an Iceberg. When we are alone, Laura looked up
Speaker 1: with wonder in her great eyes and something like a
Speaker 1: blush suffusing her face, followed by a look of languor
Speaker 1: that penetrated Harry's heart as if it had been longing?
Speaker 1: Did I ever show any want of confidence in you, Harry?
Speaker 1: And she gave him her hand, which Harry pressed with effusion.
Speaker 1: Something in her manner told him that he must be
Speaker 1: content with that favor. It was always so. She excited
Speaker 1: his hopes and denied him, inflamed his passion and restrained it,
Speaker 1: and wound him in her toils day by day. To
Speaker 1: what purpose it was keen delight to Laura to prove
Speaker 1: that she had power over men. Laura liked to hear
Speaker 1: hear about life at the East, and especially about the
Speaker 1: luxurious society in which mister Brierly moved when he was
Speaker 1: at home. It pleased her imagination to fancy herself a
Speaker 1: queen in it. You should be a winter in Washington,
Speaker 1: Harry said, But I have no acquaintances there, don't know
Speaker 1: any of the families of the congressmen. They like to
Speaker 1: have a pretty woman staying with them. Not one suppose
Speaker 1: Colonel Sellers should have business there. Say about this Columbus
Speaker 1: River appropriation Sellers, and Laura laughed, you needn't laugh. Queer
Speaker 1: things have happened. Sellers knows everybody from Mississippi and from
Speaker 1: the West too. For that matter, he'd introduce you to
Speaker 1: Washington life quick enough. It doesn't need a crowbar to
Speaker 1: break your way into society there, as it does in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: It's democratic. Washington is money or beauty will open any door.
Speaker 1: If I were a handsome woman, I shouldn't want any
Speaker 1: better place than the Capital to pick up a prince
Speaker 1: or a fortune. Thank you, replied eyed Laura. But I
Speaker 1: prefer the quiet of home and the love of those
Speaker 1: I know. And her face wore a look of sweet
Speaker 1: contentment and unworldliness that finished mister Harry Brierly for the day. Nevertheless,
Speaker 1: the hint that Harry had dropped fell upon good ground
Speaker 1: and bore fruit an hundredfold. It worked in her mind
Speaker 1: until she had built up a plan on it, and
Speaker 1: almost a career for herself. Why not, she said, Why
Speaker 1: shouldn't I do as other women have done? She took
Speaker 1: the first opportunity to see Colonel Sellers and to sound
Speaker 1: him about the Washington visit. How is he getting on
Speaker 1: with his navigation scheme? Would it be likely to take
Speaker 1: him from home to Jefferson City or to Washington? Perhaps? Well, maybe,
Speaker 1: if the people of Napoleon want me to go to Washington,
Speaker 1: and look after that matter, I might tear myself from
Speaker 1: my home. It's been suggested to me, but not a
Speaker 1: word of it to missus Sellers and the children. Maybe
Speaker 1: they wouldn't like to think of their father in Washington.
Speaker 1: But Dilworthy. Senator Dilworthy says to me, Colonel, you are
Speaker 1: the man you could influence more votes than any one
Speaker 1: else on such a measure. An old settler, a man
Speaker 1: of the people. You know the wants of Missouri. You've
Speaker 1: a respect for religion too, says he, And know how
Speaker 1: the cause of the Gospel goes with improvements, which is
Speaker 1: true enough, Miss Laura, and hasn't been enough thought of
Speaker 1: in connection with Napoleon. He's an able man, Dilworthy, and
Speaker 1: a good man. A man has got to be good
Speaker 1: to succeed as he has. He's only been in Congress
Speaker 1: a few years, and he must be worth a million.
Speaker 1: First thing in the morning, when he stayed with me,
Speaker 1: he asked about family prayers, whether we had him before
Speaker 1: or after breakfast. I hated to disappoint the Senator, but
Speaker 1: I had to out with it, tell him we didn't
Speaker 1: have him. Not steady, he said, he understood business interruptions.
Speaker 1: And all that some men were well enough without. But
Speaker 1: as for him, he never neglected the order of religion.
Speaker 1: He doubted if the Columbus River appropriation would succeed if
Speaker 1: we did not invoke the divine blessing on it. Perhaps
Speaker 1: it is necessary to say to the reader that Senator
Speaker 1: Dilworthy had not stayed with Colonel Sellers while he was
Speaker 1: in Hawkeye, this visit to his house being only one
Speaker 1: of the Colonel's hallucinations, one of those instant creations of
Speaker 1: his fertile fancy, which were always flashing into his brain
Speaker 1: and out of his mouth in the course of any conversation,
Speaker 1: and without interrupting the flow of it. During the summer,
Speaker 1: Philip rode across the country and made a short visit
Speaker 1: in Hawkeye, giving Harry an opportunity to show him the
Speaker 1: progress that he and the Colonel had made in their
Speaker 1: operation at Stone's Landing, to introduce him also to Laura,
Speaker 1: and to borrow a little money. When he departed, Harry
Speaker 1: bragged about his conquest, as was his habit, and took
Speaker 1: Philip Brown to see his western prize. Laura received mister
Speaker 1: Philip with a courtesy and a slight hauteur that rather
Speaker 1: surprised and not a little interested him. He saw at
Speaker 1: once that she was older than Harry, and soon made
Speaker 1: up his mind that she was leading his friend a
Speaker 1: country dance to which he was accustomed. At least he
Speaker 1: thought he saw that, and half hinted as much to Harry,
Speaker 1: who flared up at once. But on a second visit
Speaker 1: Philip was not so sure. The young lady was certainly
Speaker 1: kind and friendly, and almost confiding with Harry, and treated
Speaker 1: Philip with the greatest consideration. She deferred to his opinions
Speaker 1: and listened attentively when he talked, and in time met
Speaker 1: his frank manner with an equal frankness, so that he
Speaker 1: was quite convinced that whatever she might feel towards Harry,
Speaker 1: she was sincere with him. Perhaps his manly way did
Speaker 1: win her liking. Perhaps in her mind she compared him
Speaker 1: with Harry and recognized in him a man to whom
Speaker 1: a woman might give her whole soul recklessly and with
Speaker 1: little care if she lost it. Philip was not invincible
Speaker 1: to her beauty, nor to the intellectual charm of her presence.
Speaker 1: The week seemed very short that he passed in Hawkeye,
Speaker 1: and when he bade Laura good bye. He seemed to
Speaker 1: have known her a year. We shall see you again,
Speaker 1: mister Sterling, she said, as she gave him her hand,
Speaker 1: with just a shade of sadness in her handsome eyes,
Speaker 1: And when he turned away, she followed him with a
Speaker 1: look that might have disturbed his serenity if he had
Speaker 1: not at the moment had a little square letter in
Speaker 1: his breast pocket, dated at Philadelphia and signed Ruth. End
Speaker 1: of Chapter nineteen.