Speaker 1: This is section thirty seven 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 seven. That Chairman was nowhere in sight. Such
Speaker 1: disappointments seldom occur in novels, but are always happening in
Speaker 1: real life. She was obliged to make a new plan.
Speaker 1: She sent him a note and asked him to call
Speaker 1: in the evening, which he did. She received the honorable
Speaker 1: mister Buckstone with a sunny smile and said, I don't
Speaker 1: know how I ever dared to send you a note,
Speaker 1: mister Buckstone, for you have the reputation of not being
Speaker 1: very partial to our sex. Why I am sure my
Speaker 1: reputation does me wrong, then, Miss Hawkins, I have been
Speaker 1: married once. Is that nothing in my favor? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: that is. It may be, and it may not be.
Speaker 1: If you have known what perfection is in woman, it
Speaker 1: is fair to argue that inferiority cannot interest you. Now,
Speaker 1: even if that were the case, it could not affect you,
Speaker 1: Miss Hawkins, said the Chairman gallantly. Fame does not place
Speaker 1: you in the list of ladies who rank below perfection.
Speaker 1: This happy speech delighted mister Buckstone as much as it
Speaker 1: seemed to delight Laura, but it did not confuse him
Speaker 1: as much as it apparently did her. I wish, in
Speaker 1: all sincerity that I could be worthy of such a
Speaker 1: felicitous compliment as that, But I am a woman, and
Speaker 1: so I am gratified for her just as it is,
Speaker 1: and would not have it altered. But it is not
Speaker 1: merely a compliment. That is an empty compliment. It is
Speaker 1: the truth. All men will endorse that. Laura looked pleased
Speaker 1: and said, it is very kind of you to say it.
Speaker 1: It is a distinction, indeed, for a country bred girl
Speaker 1: like me to be so spoken of by people of
Speaker 1: brains and culture. You are so kind that I know
Speaker 1: you will pardon my putting you to the trouble to
Speaker 1: come this evening. Indeed it was no trouble. It was
Speaker 1: a pleasure. I am alone in the world since I
Speaker 1: lost my wife, and I often long for the society
Speaker 1: of your sex, Miss Hawkins. Notwithstanding what people may say
Speaker 1: to the contrary, it is pleasant to hear you say that.
Speaker 1: I am sure it must be so. If I feel
Speaker 1: lonely at times because of my exile from old friends,
Speaker 1: although surrounded by new ones who are already very dear
Speaker 1: to me, how much more lonely must you feel, bereft
Speaker 1: as you are, and with no wholesome relief from the
Speaker 1: cares of state that weigh you down. For your own
Speaker 1: sake as well as for the sake of others. You
Speaker 1: ought to go into society oftener. I seldom see you
Speaker 1: at a reception, and when I do, you do not
Speaker 1: usually give me very much of your attention. I never
Speaker 1: imagined that you wished it, or I would have been
Speaker 1: very glad to make myself happy in that way. But
Speaker 1: one seldom gets an opportunity to say more than a
Speaker 1: sentence to you. In a place like that. You are
Speaker 1: always the center of a group, a fact which you
Speaker 1: may have noticed yourself. But if one might come here,
Speaker 1: indeed you would always find a hearty well. Mister Buckstone,
Speaker 1: I have often wished you would come and tell me
Speaker 1: more about Cairo and the Pyramids, as you once promised
Speaker 1: me you would. Why do you remember that, yet, miss Hawkins,
Speaker 1: I thought lady's memories were more fickle than that. Oh,
Speaker 1: they are not so fickle as gentlemen's promises. And besides,
Speaker 1: if I had been inclined to forget, I did you
Speaker 1: not give me something by the way of a remembrancer?
Speaker 1: Did I think? It does seem to me that I did,
Speaker 1: but I have forgotten what it was. Now never never
Speaker 1: call a lady's memory fickle again? Do you recognize this
Speaker 1: a little spray of box? I am beaten. I surrender,
Speaker 1: But have you kept that all this time? Laura's confusion
Speaker 1: was very pretty. She tried to hide it, but the
Speaker 1: more she tried, the more manifest it became, and with
Speaker 1: all the more captivating to look upon. Presently, she threw
Speaker 1: the spray of box from her with an annoyed air,
Speaker 1: and said, I forgot myself. I have been very foolish.
Speaker 1: I beg that you will forget this absurd thing. Mister
Speaker 1: Buckstone picked up the spray, and, sitting down by Laura's
Speaker 1: side on the sofa, said, please let me keep it,
Speaker 1: Miss Hawkins. I set a very high value upon it.
Speaker 1: Now I give it back to me, mister Buckstone, and
Speaker 1: do not speak. So I have been sufficiently punished for
Speaker 1: my thoughtlessness. You cannot take pleasure in adding to my distress.
Speaker 1: Please give it to me. Indeed, I do not wish
Speaker 1: to distress you, But do not consider the matter so gravely.
Speaker 1: You have done yourself no wrong. You probably forgot that
Speaker 1: you had it, but if you had given it to me,
Speaker 1: I would have kept it and not forgotten it. Do
Speaker 1: not talk, so, mister Buckstone, give it to me, please,
Speaker 1: and forget the matter. It would not be kind to refuse,
Speaker 1: since it troubles you so, and so I restore it.
Speaker 1: But if you would give me part of it and
Speaker 1: keep the rest, so that you might have something to
Speaker 1: remind you of me when you wished to laugh at
Speaker 1: my foolishness, Oh, by no means no, simply that I
Speaker 1: might remember that I had once assisted to discomfort you,
Speaker 1: and be reminded to do so. No more. Laura looked
Speaker 1: up and scanned his face. A moment she was about
Speaker 1: to break the twig, but she hesitated and said, if
Speaker 1: I were sure that you She threw the spray away
Speaker 1: and continued, this is silly. We will change the subject. No,
Speaker 1: do not insist. I must have my way in this.
Speaker 1: Then mister Buckstone drew off his forces and proceeded to
Speaker 1: make a wily advance upon the fortress under cover of
Speaker 1: carefully contrived artifices. And stratagems of war. But he contended
Speaker 1: with an alert and suspicious enemy. And so at the
Speaker 1: end of two hours it was manifest to him that
Speaker 1: he had made but little progress. Still, he had made some,
Speaker 1: he was sure of that. Laura sat alone and communed
Speaker 1: with herself. He is fairly hooked, poor thing. I can
Speaker 1: play him at my leisure and land him when I choose.
Speaker 1: He was all ready to be caught days and days ago.
Speaker 1: I saw that very well. He will vote for our bill,
Speaker 1: no fear about that. And moreover, he will work for
Speaker 1: it too, before I am done with him. If he
Speaker 1: had a woman's eyes, he would have noticed that the
Speaker 1: spray of box had grown three inches since he first
Speaker 1: gave it to me. But a man never sees anything
Speaker 1: and never suspects. If I had shown him a whole bush,
Speaker 1: he would have thought it was the same. Well, it
Speaker 1: is a good night's work. The committee is safe. But
Speaker 1: this is a desperate game I am playing in these days,
Speaker 1: a wearing, sordid, heartless game. If I lose, I lose everything,
Speaker 1: even myself. And if I win the game, will it
Speaker 1: be worth its cost? After all? I do not know.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I doubt. Sometimes I half wish I had not begun,
Speaker 1: But no matter, I have begun, and I will never
Speaker 1: turn back, never while I live. Mister Buckstone indulged in
Speaker 1: a reverie as he walked homeward. She is shrewd and deep,
Speaker 1: and plays her cards with considerable discretion. But she will lose.
Speaker 1: For all that. There is no hurry. I shall come
Speaker 1: out winter all in good time. She is the most
Speaker 1: beautiful woman in the world, and she surpassed herself to night.
Speaker 1: I suppose I must vote for that bill in the end. Maybe,
Speaker 1: but that is not a matter of much consequence. The
Speaker 1: government can stand it. She is bent on capturing me,
Speaker 1: that is plain. But she will find by and by
Speaker 1: that what she took for a sleeping garrison was an ambuscade.
Speaker 1: End of chapter thirty seven.