The American Claimant - Mark Twain (best life changing books txt) š
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Tracy couldnāt know he was to be invited for the morrow, or he might have waited. As it was, he was too miserable to wait any longer; for his last hopeāa letterāhad failed him. It was fully due to-day; it had not come. Had his father really flung him away? It looked so. It was not like his father, but it surely looked so. His father was a rather tough nut, in truth, but had never been so with his sonāstill, this implacable silence had a calamitous look. Anyway, Tracy would go to the Towers and āthen what? He didnāt know; his head was tired out with thinkingā he wouldnāt think about what he must do or sayālet it all take care of itself. So that he saw Sally once more, he would be satisfied, happen what might; he wouldnāt care.
He hardly knew how he got to the Towers, or when. He knew and cared for only one thingāhe was alone with Sally. She was kind, she was gentle, there was moisture in her eyes, and a yearning something in her face and manner which she could not wholly hideābut she kept her distance. They talked. Bye and bye she saidāwatching his downcast countenance out of the corner of her eyeā
āItās so lonesomeāwith papa and mamma gone. I try to read, but I canāt seem to get interested in any book. I try the newspapers, but they do put such rubbish in them. You take up a paper and start to read something you thinks interesting, and it goes on and on and on about how somebodyāwell, Dr. Snodgrass, for instanceāā
Not a movement from Tracy, not the quiver of a muscle. Sally was amazed āwhat command of himself he must have! Being disconcerted, she paused so long that Tracy presently looked up wearily and said:
āWell?ā
āOh, I thought you were not listening. Yes, it goes on and on about this Doctor Snodgrass, till you are so tired, and then about his younger sonā the favorite sonāZylobalsamum Snodgrassāā
Not a sign from Tracy, whose head was drooping again. What supernatural self-possession! Sally fixed her eye on him and began again, resolved to blast him out of his serenity this time if she knew how to apply the dynamite that is concealed in certain forms of words when those words are properly loaded with unexpected meanings.
āAnd next it goes on and on and on about the eldest sonānot the favorite, this oneāand how he is neglected in his poor barren boyhood, and allowed to grow up unschooled, ignorant, coarse, vulgar, the comrade of the communityās scum, and become in his completed manhood a rude, profane, dissipated ruffianāā
That head still drooped! Sally rose, moved softly and solemnly a step or two, and stood before Tracyāhis head came slowly up, his meek eyes met her intense onesāthen she finished with deep impressivenessā
āānamed Spinal Meningitis Snodgrass!ā
Tracy merely exhibited signs of increased fatigue. The girl was outraged by this iron indifference and callousness, and cried outā
āWhat are you made of?ā
āI? Why?ā
āHavenāt you any sensitiveness? Donāt these things touch any poor remnant of delicate feeling in you?ā
āNāno,ā he said wonderingly, āthey donāt seem to. Why should they?ā
āO, dear me, how can you look so innocent, and foolish, and good, and empty, and gentle, and all that, right in the hearing of such things as those! Look me in the eyeāstraight in the eye. There, now then, answer me without a flinch. Isnāt Doctor Snodgrass your father, and isnāt Zylobalsamum your brother,ā [here Hawkins was about to enter the room, but changed his mind upon hearing these words, and elected for a walk down town, and so glided swiftly away], āand isnāt your name Spinal Meningitis, and isnāt your father a doctor and an idiot, like all the family for generations, and doesnāt he name all his children after poisons and pestilences and abnormal anatomical eccentricities of the human body? Answer me, some way or somehowāand quick. Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it and see me going mad before your face with suspense!ā
āOh, I wish I could doādoāI wish I could do something, anything that would give you peace again and make you happy; but I know of nothingā I know of no way. I have never heard of these awful people before.ā
āWhat? Say it again!ā
āI have neverānever in my life till now.ā
āOh, you do look so honest when you say that! It must be trueāsurely you couldnāt look that way, you wouldnāt look that way if it were not trueāwould you?ā
āI couldnāt and wouldnāt. It is true. Oh, let us end this sufferingā take me back into your heart and confidenceāā
āWaitāone more thing. Tell me you told that falsehood out of mere vanity and are sorry for it; that youāre not expecting to ever wear the coronet of an earlāā
āTruly I am curedācured this very dayāI am not expecting it!ā
āO, now you are mine! Iāve got you back in the beauty and glory of your unsmirched poverty and your honorable obscurity, and nobody shall ever take you from me again but the grave! And ifāā
āDe earl of Rossmore, fum Englanā!ā
āMy father!ā The young man released the girl and hung his head.
The old gentleman stood surveying the coupleāthe one with a strongly complimentary right eye, the other with a mixed expression done with the left. This is difficult, and not often resorted to. Presently his face relaxed into a kind of constructive gentleness, and he said to his son:
āDonāt you think you could embrace me, too?ā
The young man did it with alacrity. āThen you are the son of an earl, after all,ā said Sally, reproachfully.
āYes, Iāā
āThen I wonāt have you!ā
āO, but you knowāā
āNo, I will not. Youāve told me another fib.ā
āSheās right. Go away and leave us. I want to talk with her.ā
Berkeley was obliged to go. But he did not go far. He remained on the premises. At midnight the conference between the old gentleman and the young girl was still going blithely on, but it presently drew to a close, and the former said:
āI came all the way over here to inspect you, my dear, with the general idea of breaking off this match if there were two fools of you, but as thereās only one, you can have him if youāll take him.ā
āIndeed I will, then! May I kiss you?ā
āYou may. Thank you. Now you shall have that privilege whenever you are good.ā
Meantime Hawkins had long ago returned and slipped up into the laboratory. He was rather disconcerted to find his late invention, Snodgrass, there. The news was told him that the English Rossmore was come,
āāand Iām his son, Viscount Berkeley, not Howard Tracy any more.ā
Hawkins was aghast. He said:
āGood gracious, then youāre dead!ā
āDead?ā
āYes you areāweāve got your ashes.ā
āHang those ashes, Iām tired of them; Iāll give them to my father.ā
Slowly and painfully the statesman worked the truth into his head that this was really a flesh and blood young man, and not the insubstantial resurrection he and Sellers had so long supposed him to be. Then he said with feelingā
āIām so glad; so glad on Sallyās account, poor thing. We took you for a departed materialized bank thief from Tahlequah. This will be a heavy blow to Sellers.ā Then he explained the whole matter to Berkeley, who said:
āWell, the Claimant must manage to stand the blow, severe as it is. But heāll get over the disappointment.ā
āWhoāthe colonel? Heāll get over it the minute he invents a new miracle to take its place. And heās already at it by this time. But look hereā what do you suppose became of the man youāve been representing all this time?ā
āI donāt know. I saved his clothesāit was all I could do. I am afraid he lost his life.ā
āWell, you must have found twenty or thirty thousand dollars in those clothes, in money or certificates of deposit.ā
āNo, I found only five hundred and a trifle. I borrowed the trifle and banked the five hundred.ā
āWhatāll we do about it?ā
āReturn it to the owner.ā
āItās easy said, but not easy to manage. Letās leave it alone till we get Sellersās advice. And that reminds me. Iāve got to run and meet Sellers and explain who you are not and who you are, or heāll come thundering in here to stop his daughter from marrying a phantom. Butā suppose your father came over here to break off the match?ā
āWell, isnāt he down stairs getting acquainted with Sally? Thatās all safe.ā
So Hawkins departed to meet and prepare the Sellerses.
Rossmore Towers saw great times and late hours during the succeeding week. The two earls were such opposites in nature that they fraternized at once. Sellers said privately that Rossmore was the most extraordinary character he had ever metāa man just made out of the condensed milk of human kindness, yet with the ability to totally hide the fact from any but the most practised character-reader; a man whose whole being was sweetness, patience and charity, yet with a cunning so profound, an ability so marvelous in the acting of a double part, that many a person of considerable intelligence might live with him for centuries and never suspect the presence in him of these characteristics.
Finally there was a quiet wedding at the Towers, instead of a big one at the British embassy, with the militia and the fire brigades and the temperance organizations on hand in torchlight procession, as at first proposed by one of the earls. The art-firm and Barrow were present at the wedding, and the tinner and Puss had been invited, but the tinner was ill and Puss was nursing himāfor they were engaged.
The Sellerses were to go to England with their new allies for a brief visit, but when it was time to take the train from Washington, the colonel was missing.
Hawkins was going as far as New York with the party, and said he would explain the matter on the road.
The explanation was in a letter left by the colonel in Hawkinsās hands. In it he promised to join Mrs. Sellers later, in England, and then went on to say:
The truth is, my dear Hawkins, a mighty idea has been born to me within the hour, and I must not even stop to say goodbye to my dear ones. A manās highest duty takes precedence of all minor ones, and must be attended to with his best promptness and energy, at whatsoever cost to his affections or his convenience. And first of all a manās duties is his duty to his own honorāhe must keep that spotless. Mine is threatened. When I was feeling sure of my imminent future solidity, I forwarded to the Czar of Russiaāperhaps prematurelyāan offer for the purchase of Siberia, naming a vast sum. Since then an episode has warned me that the method by which I was expecting to acquire this moneyā materialization upon a scale of limitless magnitudeāis marred by a taint of temporary uncertainty. His imperial majesty may accept my offer at any moment. If this should occur now, I should find myself painfully embarrassed, in fact financially inadequate. I could not take Siberia. This would become known, and my credit would suffer.
Recently my private hours have been dark indeed, but the sun shines main, now; I see my way; I shall be able to meet my obligation, and without having to ask an extension of the stipulated time, I think. This grand new idea of mineāthe sublimest I have ever conceived, will save
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