Swimming in Glory.
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 others, 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"--hand-shake.
"Good morning, Brother Higgins--Count Luigi Capello, Mr.
Higgins"--hand-shake, 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"--hand-shake.
"Good morning, Mr. Higgins--present you to Count Angelo Capello."
Hand-shake, 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
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 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.