Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0146/01464.txt

Text File | 1993-07-27 | 10KB | 184 lines

$Unique_ID{bob01464}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Pudd'nhead Wilson
Chapter VI}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Twain, Mark}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{twins
rowena
how
now
handshake
higgins
widow
years

}
$Date{1905}
$Log{}
Title:       Pudd'nhead Wilson
Author:      Twain, Mark
Date:        1905

Chapter VI

     Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the
     undertaker will be sorry.

                    - Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar.

     Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man,
     but coaxed down-stairs a step at a time.

                    - Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar.

     At breakfast in the morning the twins' charm of manner and easy and
polished bearing made speedy conquest of the family's good graces.  All
constraint and formality quickly disappeared, and the friendliest feeling
succeeded.  Aunt Patsy called them by their Christian names almost from the
beginning.  She was full of the keenest curiosity about them, and showed it;
they responded by talking about themselves, which pleased her greatly.  It
presently appeared that in their early youth they had known poverty and
hardship.  As the talk wandered along the old lady watched for the right
place to drop in a question or two concerning that matter, and when she found
it she said to the blond twin who was now doing the biographies in his turn
while the brunette one rested:

     "If it ain't asking what I ought not to ask, Mr. Angelo, how did you
come to be so friendless and in such trouble when you were little?  Do you
mind telling?  But don't if you do."

     "Oh, we don't mind it at all, madam; in our case it was merely
misfortune, and nobody's fault.  Our parents were well to do, there in Italy,
and we were their only child.  We were of the old Florentine nobility" -
Rowena's heart gave a great bound, her nostrils expanded, and a fine light
played in her eyes - "and when the war broke out my father was on the losing
side and had to fly for his life.  His estates were confiscated, his personal
property seized, and there we were, in Germany, strangers, friendless, and,
in fact, paupers.  My brother and I were ten years old, and well educated for
that age, very studious, very fond of our books, and well grounded in the
German, French, Spanish, and English languages.  Also, we were marvelous
musical prodigies - if you will allow me to say it, it being only the truth.

     "Our father survived his misfortunes only a month, our mother soon
followed him, and we were alone in the world.  Our parents could have made
themselves comfortable by exhibiting us as a show, and they had many and
large offers; but the thought revolted their pride, and they said they would
starve and die first.  But what they wouldn't consent to do we had to do
without the formality of consent.  We were seized for the debts occasioned
by their illness and their funerals, and placed among the attractions of a
cheap museum in Berlin to earn the liquidation money.  It took us two years
to get out of that slavery.  We traveled all about Germany receiving no
wages, and not even our keep.  We had to be exhibited for nothing, and beg
our bread.

     "Well, madam, the rest is not of much consequence.  When we escaped from
that slavery at twelve years of age, we were in some respects men.
Experience had taught us some valuable things; among other, how to take care
of ourselves, how to avoid and defeat sharks and sharpers, and how to conduct
our own business for our own profit and without other people's help.  We
traveled everywhere - years and years - picking up smatterings of strange
tongues, familiarizing ourselves with strange sights and strange customs,
accumulating an education of a wide and varied and curious sort.  It was a
pleasant life.  We went to Venice - to London, Paris, Russia, India, China,
Japan - "

     At this point Nancy, the slave woman, thrust her head in at the door and
exclaimed:

     "Ole Missus, de house is plum' jam full o' people, en dey's jes a-
spi'lin' to see de gen'lmen!" She indicated the twins with a nod of her head,
and tucked it back out of sight again.

     It was a proud occasion for the widow, and she promised herself high
satisfaction in showing off her fine foreign birds before her neighbors and
friends - simple folk who had hardly ever seen a foreigner of any kind, and
never one of any distinction or style.  Yet her feeling was moderate indeed
when contrasted with Rowena's.  Rowena was in the clouds, she walked on air;
this was to be the greatest day, the most romantic episode, in the colorless
history of that dull country town.  She was to be familiarly near the source
of its glory and feel the full flood of it pour over her and about her; the
other girls could only gaze and envy, not partake.

     The widow was ready, Rowena was ready, so also were the foreigners.

     The party moved along the hall, the twins in advance, and entered the
open parlor door, whence issued a low hum of conversation.  The twins took a
position near the door, the widow stood at Luigi's side, Rowena stood beside
Angelo, and the march-past and the introductions began.  The widow was all
smiles and contentment.  She received the procession and passed it on to
Rowena.

     "Good mornin', Sister Cooper" - handshake.

     "Good morning, Brother Higgins - Count Luigi Capello, Mr. Higgins" -
handshake, followed by a devouring stare and "I'm glad to see ye," on the
part of Higgins, and a courteous inclination of the head and a pleasant "Most
happy!" on the part of Count Luigi.

     "Good mornin', Roweny" - handshake.

     "Good morning, Mr. Higgins - present you to Count Angelo Capello."
Handshake, admiring stare, "Glad to see ye," - courteous nod, smily "Most
happy!" and Higgins passes on.

     None of these visitors was at ease, but, being honest people, they
didn't pretend to be.  None of them had ever seen a person bearing a title
of nobility before, and none had been expecting to see one now, consequently
the title came upon them as a kind of pile-driving surprise and caught them
unprepared.  A few tried to rise to the emergency, and got out an awkward "My
lord," or "Your lordship," or something of that sort, but the great majority
were overwhelmed by the unaccustomed word and its dim and awful associations
with gilded courts and stately ceremony and anointed kingship, so they only
fumbled through the handshake and passed on speechless.  Now and then, as
happens at all receptions everywhere, a more than ordinarily friendly soul
blocked the procession and kept it waiting while he inquired how the brothers
liked the village, and how long they were going to stay, and if their
families were well, and dragged in the weather, and hoped it would get cooler
soon, and all that sort of thing, so as to be able to say, when they got
home, "I had quite a long talk with them;" but nobody did or said anything
of a regrettable kind, and so the great affair went through to the end in a
creditable and satisfactory fashion.

     General conversation followed, and the twins drifted about from group
to group, talking easily and fluently and winning approval, compelling
admiration and achieving favor from all.  The widow followed their conquering
march with a proud eye, and every now and then Rowena said to herself with
deep satisfaction, "And to think they are ours - all ours!"

     There were no idle moments for mother or daughter.  Eager inquiries
concerning the twins were pouring into their enchanted ears all the time;
each was the constant center of a group of breathless listeners; each
recognized that she knew now for the first time the real meaning of that
great word Glory, and perceived the stupendous value of it, and understood
why men in all ages had been willing to throw away meaner happinesses,
treasure, life itself, to get a taste of its sublime and supreme joy.
Napoleon and all his kind stood accounted for - and justified.

     When Rowena had at last done all her duty by the people in the parlor,
she went up stairs to satisfy the longings of an overflow-meeting there, for
the parlor was not big enough to hold all the comers.  Again she was besieged
by eager questioners and again she swam in sunset seas of glory.  When the
forenoon was nearly gone, she recognized with a pang that this most splendid
episode of her life was almost over, that nothing could prolong it, that
nothing quite its equal could ever fall to her fortune again.  But never
mind, it was sufficient unto itself, the grand occasion had moved on an
ascending scale from the start, and was a noble and memorable success.  If
the twins could but do some crowning act now to climax it, something unusual,
something startling, something to concentrate upon themselves the company's
loftiest admiration, something in the nature of an electric surprise -

     Here a prodigious slam-banging broke out below, and everybody rushed
down to see.  It was the twins knocking out a classic four-handed piece on
the piano in great style.  Rowena was satisfied - satisfied down to the
bottom of her heart.

     The young strangers were kept long at the piano.  The villagers were
astonished and enchanted with the magnificence of their performance, and
could not bear to have them stop.  All the music that they had ever heard
before seemed spiritless prentice-work and barren of grace or charm when
compared with these intoxicating floods of melodious sound.  They realized
that for once in their lives they were hearing masters.