Speaker 1: This is section thirty two 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 Ceed Warner,
Speaker 1: Chapter thirty two. Washington's delight in his beautiful sister was measureless.
Speaker 1: He said that she had always been the queenliest creature
Speaker 1: in the land, but that she was only commonplace before
Speaker 1: compared to what she was now. So extraordinary was the
Speaker 1: improvement wrought by rich, fashionable attire. But your criticisms are
Speaker 1: too full of brotherly partiality to be depended on Washington.
Speaker 1: Other people will judge differently. Indeed they won't. You'll see
Speaker 1: there will never be a woman in Washington that can
Speaker 1: compare with you. You'll be famous within a fortnight, Laura.
Speaker 1: Everybody will want to know you. You wait, you'll see.
Speaker 1: Laura wished in her heart that the prophecy might come true,
Speaker 1: and privately she even believed it might, for she had
Speaker 1: brought all the women whom she had seen since she
Speaker 1: left home under sharp inspection, and the result had not
Speaker 1: been unsatisfactory to her. During a week or two, Washington
Speaker 1: drove about the city every day with her and familiarized
Speaker 1: her with all of its salient features. She was beginning
Speaker 1: to feel very much at home with the town itself,
Speaker 1: and she was also fast acquiring ease with the distinguished
Speaker 1: people she met at the Dilworthy table, and losing what
Speaker 1: little of country timidity she had brought with her from Hawkeye.
Speaker 1: She noticed with secret pleasure the little start of admiration
Speaker 1: that always manifested itself in the faces of the guests
Speaker 1: when she entered the drawing room, arrayed in evening costume.
Speaker 1: She took comforting note of the fact that these guests
Speaker 1: directed a very liberal share of their conversation toward her.
Speaker 1: She observed with surprise that famous statesmen and soldiers did
Speaker 1: not talk like gods as a general thing, but said
Speaker 1: rather commonplace things for the most part, and she was
Speaker 1: filled with gratification to discover that she, on the contrary,
Speaker 1: was making a good many shrewd speeches, and now and
Speaker 1: then a really brilliant one, and furthermore, that they were
Speaker 1: beginning to be repeated in social circles about the town.
Speaker 1: Congress began as sittings, and every day or two Washington
Speaker 1: escorted her to the galleries set apart for lady members
Speaker 1: of the households of senators and representatives. Here was a
Speaker 1: larger field and a wider competition. But still she saw
Speaker 1: that many eyes were uplifted towards her face, and that
Speaker 1: first one person and then another called a neighbour's attention
Speaker 1: to her. She was not too dull to perceive that
Speaker 1: the speeches of some of the younger statesmen were delivered
Speaker 1: about as much and perhaps more, at her than to
Speaker 1: the presiding officer. And she was not sorry to see
Speaker 1: that the dapper young senator from Iowa came at once
Speaker 1: and stood in the open space before the President's desk
Speaker 1: to exhibit his feet as soon as she entered the gallery,
Speaker 1: whereas she had early learned from common report surport that
Speaker 1: his usual custom was to prop them on his desk
Speaker 1: and enjoy them himself, with a selfish disregard of other
Speaker 1: people's longings. Invitations began to flow in upon her, and
Speaker 1: soon she was fairly in society. The season was now
Speaker 1: in full bloom, and the first select reception was at hand,
Speaker 1: that is to say, a reception confined to invited guests.
Speaker 1: Senator Dilworthy had become well convinced by this time that
Speaker 1: his judgment of the country bred Missouri girl had not
Speaker 1: deceived him. It was plain that she was going to
Speaker 1: be a peerless missionary in the field of labor he
Speaker 1: designed her for, and therefore it would be perfectly safe
Speaker 1: and likewise judicious to send her forth well panoplied for
Speaker 1: her work. So he had added new and still richer
Speaker 1: costumes to her wardrobe, and assisted their attractions with costly
Speaker 1: jewelry loans on the future land sale. This first select
Speaker 1: reception took place at a cabinet minister, or rather a
Speaker 1: cabinet secretary's mansion. When Laura and the Senator arrived about
Speaker 1: half past nine or ten in the evening, the place
Speaker 1: was already pretty well crowded, and the white gloved negro
Speaker 1: servant at the door was still receiving streams of guests.
Speaker 1: The drawing rooms were brilliant with gas light and as
Speaker 1: hot as ovens. The host and hostess stood just within
Speaker 1: the door of entrance. Laura was presented, and then she
Speaker 1: passed on into the mailstroam of bejeweled and richly attired,
Speaker 1: low necked ladies and white kid gloved and steel pen
Speaker 1: coated gentlemen. And wherever she moved she was followed by
Speaker 1: a buzz of admiration that was grateful to all her senses,
Speaker 1: so grateful indeed, that her white face was tinged and
Speaker 1: its beauty heightened by a perceptible suffusion of color. She
Speaker 1: caught such remarks as who is she superb woman? That
Speaker 1: is a new beauty from the west, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Whenever she halted, she was presently surrounded by ministers, generals, congressmen,
Speaker 1: and all manner of aristocratic people. Introductions followed, and then
Speaker 1: the usual original question, how do you like Washington, Miss Hawkins,
Speaker 1: supplemented by that other usual original question, is this your
Speaker 1: first visit? These two exciting topics being exhausted, conversation generally
Speaker 1: drifted into calmer channels, only to be interrupted at frequent
Speaker 1: intervals by new introductions and new inquiries as to how
Speaker 1: Laura liked the capital and whether it was her first
Speaker 1: visit or not. And thus, for an hour or more,
Speaker 1: the Duchess moved through the crush in a rapture of happiness.
Speaker 1: For her doubts were dead and gone. Now she knew
Speaker 1: she could conquer here. A familiar face appeared in the
Speaker 1: midst of the multitude, and Harry Brierly fought his difficult
Speaker 1: way to her side, his eyes shouting their gratifications, so
Speaker 1: to speak. Oh this is happiness. Tell me, my dear
Speaker 1: miss Hawkins, sh I know what you are going to ask.
Speaker 1: I do like Washington. I like it very much. No,
Speaker 1: but I was going to ask. Yes, I am coming
Speaker 1: to it, coming to it as fast as I can.
Speaker 1: It is my first visit. I think you should know
Speaker 1: that yourself. And straightway a wave of the crowd swept
Speaker 1: her beyond his reach. Now what can the girl mean?
Speaker 1: Of course she likes Washington. I'm not such a dummy
Speaker 1: as to have to ask her that. And as to
Speaker 1: its being her first visit, why I bang it? She
Speaker 1: knows that I knew it was. Does she think I
Speaker 1: have turned idiot? Curious girl? Anyway? But how they do
Speaker 1: swarm about her. She is the reigning bell of Washington.
Speaker 1: After this night, she'll know five hundred of the heaviest
Speaker 1: guns in the town before this night's nonsense is over.
Speaker 1: And this isn't even the beginning. Just as I used
Speaker 1: to say, she'll be a card in the matter of Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: she shall turn the men's heads, and I'll turn the women's.
Speaker 1: What a team that will be in politics? Here. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't take a quarter of a million for what I
Speaker 1: can do in this present session. No, indeed, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: now here. I don't altogether like this. That insignificant secretary
Speaker 1: of legation is why she's smiling on him as if
Speaker 1: he and now on the admiral. Now she's illuminating that
Speaker 1: stuffy congressman from Massachusetts, vulgar, ungrammatical shovel maker, greasy knave
Speaker 1: of spades. I don't like this sort of thing. She
Speaker 1: doesn't appear to be much distressed about me. She hasn't
Speaker 1: looked this way once. All right, my bird of paradise,
Speaker 1: If it suits you, go on, But I think I
Speaker 1: know your sex. I'll go to smiling round a little too,
Speaker 1: and see what effect that will have on you. And
Speaker 1: he did smile around a little and got as near
Speaker 1: to her as he could to watch the effect. But
Speaker 1: the scheme was a failure. He could not get her attention.
Speaker 1: She seemed wholly unconscious of him, and so he could
Speaker 1: not flirt with any spirit. He could only talk disjointedly.
Speaker 1: He could not keep his eyes on the charmers he
Speaker 1: talked to. He grew irritable, jealous, and very unhappy. He
Speaker 1: gave up his enterprise, leaned his shoulder against a fluted pilaster,
Speaker 1: and pouted while he kept watch upon Laura's every movement.
Speaker 1: His other shoulder stole the bloom from many a lovely
Speaker 1: cheek that brushed him in the surging crush, but he
Speaker 1: noted it. Not he was too busy cursing himself inwardly
Speaker 1: for being an egotistical imbecile. An hour ago he had
Speaker 1: thought to take this country lass under his protection and
Speaker 1: show her life and enjoy her wonder and delight. And
Speaker 1: here she was immersed in the marvel up to her eyes,
Speaker 1: and just a trifle more at home in it than
Speaker 1: he was himself. And now his angry comments ran on again.
Speaker 1: Now she's sweetening old brother Ballam, and he well, he
Speaker 1: is inviting her to the Congressional prayer meeting, no doubt.
Speaker 1: Better let old Dilworthy alone to see that she doesn't
Speaker 1: overlook that. And now it's splurge of New York, and
Speaker 1: now batters of New Hampshire. And now the Vice President, well,
Speaker 1: I may as well adjourn. I've got enough, But he hadn't.
Speaker 1: He got as far as the door, and then struggled
Speaker 1: back to take one more look, hating himself all the
Speaker 1: while for his weakness. Toward midnight, when supper was announced,
Speaker 1: the crowd thronged to the supper room, where a long
Speaker 1: table was decked out with what seemed a rare repast,
Speaker 1: but which consisted of things better calculated to feast the
Speaker 1: eye than the appetite. The ladies were soon seated in
Speaker 1: files along the wall, and in groups here and there,
Speaker 1: and the colored waiters filled the plates and glasses, and
Speaker 1: the male guests moved hither and thither, conveying them to
Speaker 1: the privileged sex. Harry took an ice and stood up
Speaker 1: by the table with other gentlemen and listened to the
Speaker 1: buzz of conversation. While he ate. From these remarks, he
Speaker 1: learned a good deal about Laura that was news to him.
Speaker 1: For instance, that she was of a distinguished western family,
Speaker 1: that she was highly educated, that she was very rich
Speaker 1: and a great landed heiress. That she was not a
Speaker 1: professor of religion, and yet was a Christian in the
Speaker 1: truest and best sense of the word, for her whole
Speaker 1: heart was devoted to the accomplishment of a great and
Speaker 1: noble enterprise, none other than the sacrificing of her landed
Speaker 1: estates to the uplifting of the down trodden Negro and
Speaker 1: the turning of his erring feet into the way of
Speaker 1: light and righteousness. Harry observed that as soon as one
Speaker 1: listener had absorbed the story, he turned about and delivered
Speaker 1: it to his next neighbor, and the latter individual straightway
Speaker 1: passed it on. And thus he saw it travel the
Speaker 1: round of the gentlemen and overflow rearward among the ladies.
Speaker 1: He could not trace it backward to its fountain head,
Speaker 1: and so he could not tell who it was that
Speaker 1: started it. One thing annoyed Harry a great deal, and
Speaker 1: that was the reflection that he might have been in
Speaker 1: Washington days and days ago and thrown his fascination about
Speaker 1: Laura with permanent effect while she was new and strange
Speaker 1: to the capital, instead of dawdling in Philadelphia to no purpose.
Speaker 1: He feared he had missed a trick. As he expressed it,
Speaker 1: he only found one little opportunity of speaking again with
Speaker 1: Laura before the evening's festivities ended, and then, for the
Speaker 1: first time in years, his airy self complacency failed him.
Speaker 1: His tongue's easy confidence forsook it in a great measure,
Speaker 1: and he was conscious of an unheroic timidity. He was
Speaker 1: glad to get away and find a place where he
Speaker 1: could despise himself in private and try to grow his
Speaker 1: clipped plumes again. When Laura reached home, she was tired
Speaker 1: but exultant, and Senator Dilworthy was pleased and satisfied. He
Speaker 1: called Laura my daughter next morning and gave her some
Speaker 1: pin money, as he termed it, and she sent a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars of it to her mother, and
Speaker 1: loaned a trifle to Colonel Sellers. Then the Senator had
Speaker 1: a long private conference with Laura and unfolded certain plans
Speaker 1: of his for the good of the country and religion
Speaker 1: and the poor and temperance, and showed her how she
Speaker 1: could assist him in developing these worthy and noble enterprises.
Speaker 1: End of Chapter thirty two.