The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson

ng in

e come to die even the undertaker will

e window by any man, but coaxed down-stairs a

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

w did you come to be so friendless and in such trouble when

nd 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 brothe

olted 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

urselves, 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 tongu

ve woman thrust her head in

jes a-spi'lin' to see de gen'lmen!" She indicated the twins

nd 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

owena was ready, so al

on. The twins took a position near the door, the widow stood at Luigi's side, Rowena stood beside Angelo, and the march-past

, Sister Coop

d by a devouring stare and "I'm glad to see ye," on the part of Higgins, and a court

n', Roweny"

apello." Hand-shake, admiring stare, "Glad to see ye,"-c

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 hand-shake and passed on, speechless. Now and then, as happens at all receptions everywhere, a more than ordinary friendly soul blocked the procession and kept it waiting while he inquired how the brot

ing approval, compelling admiration and achieving favor from all. The widow followed their conquering march with a p

eathless 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 al

e 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 a

see. It was the twins knocking out a classic four-handed piece on the piano,

nd 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