The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner

piece of good luck upon which Col. Selby congratulated himself. He was

studiously polite to her and treated her with a consideration to which

she was unaccustomed. She had read of such men, but she had never seen

one before, one so high-bred, so noble in sentiment, so entertaining in

conversation, so engaging in manner.

It is a long story; unfortunately it is an old story, and it need not be

dwelt on. Laura loved him, and believed that his love for her was as

pure and deep as her own. She worshipped him and would have counted her

life a little thing to give him, if he would only love her and let her

feed the hunger of her heart upon him.

The passion possessed her whole being, and lifted her up, till she seemed

to walk on air. It was all true, then, the romances she had read, the

bliss of love she had dreamed of. Why had she never noticed before how

blithesome the world was, how jocund with love; the birds sang it, the

trees whispered it to her as she passed, the very flowers beneath her

feet strewed the way as for a bridal march.

When the Colonel went away they were engaged to be married, as soon as he

could make certain arrangements which he represented to be necessary, and

quit the army. He wrote to her from Harding, a small town in the

southwest corner of the state, saying that he should be held in the

service longer than he had expected, but that it would not be more than a

few months, then he should be at liberty to take her to Chicago where he

had property, and should have business, either now or as soon as the war

was over, which he thought could not last long. Meantime why should they

be separated? He was established in comfortable quarters, and if she

could find company and join him, they would be married, and gain so many

more months of happiness.

Was woman ever prudent when she loved? Laura went to Harding, the

neighbors supposed to nurse Washington who had fallen ill there.

Her engagement was, of course, known in Hawkeye, and was indeed a matter

of pride to her family. Mrs. Hawkins would have told the first inquirer

that. Laura had gone to be married; but Laura had cautioned her; she did

not want to be thought of, she said, as going in search of a husband; let

the news come back after she was married.

So she traveled to Harding on the pretence we have mentioned, and was

married. She was married, but something must have happened on that very

day or the next that alarmed her. Washington did not know then or after

what it was, but Laura bound him not to send news of her marriage to

Hawkeye yet, and to enjoin her mother not to speak of it. Whatever cruel

suspicion or nameless dread this was, Laura tried bravely to put it away,

and not let it cloud her happiness.

Communication that summer, as may be imagined, was neither regular nor

frequent between the remote confederate camp at Harding and Hawkeye, and

Laura was in a measure lost sight of–indeed, everyone had troubles

enough of his own without borrowing from his neighbors.

Laura had given herself utterly to her husband, and if he had faults, if

he was selfish, if he was sometimes coarse, if he was dissipated, she did

not or would not see it. It was the passion of her life, the time when

her whole nature went to flood tide and swept away all barriers. Was her

husband ever cold or indifferent? She shut her eyes to everything but

her sense of possession of her idol.

Three months passed. One morning her husband informed her that he had

been ordered South, and must go within two hours.

“I can be ready,” said Laura, cheerfully.

“But I can’t take you. You must go back to Hawkeye.”

“Can’t-take-me?” Laura asked, with wonder in her eyes. “I can’t live

without you. You said —– ”

“O bother what I said,”–and the Colonel took up his sword to buckle it

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