The Chronicle of Young Satan by Twain Mark

Author:Twain, Mark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: (Privatkopie)
Published: 2010-02-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

When I looked in on Lilly that night after she was abed, her eyes were red and she had been crying; but I found that the source of it was not Satan's indiscriminate ways, but only resentment against Marget for her attitude toward him. She thought it was scandalous in Marget to act so, considering that she already had a lover. I was surprised at this remark; it seemed illogical, and I said so.

»You are in love with Philip Traum yourself, and you had another lover.«

She flew out at me and said –

»The cases are not the same – they are far different.«

I suppose it was a mistake to ask her to point out the difference, but I did it, not knowing much about women then – nor now, probably. Her temper warmed up, and she said –

»If you can't see the difference, it would be useless for me to try to make you. Oh, you are so stupid!«

I could not see that that was an answer, and I said so. I said –

»Look at the cases – coolly and dispassionately – just as if it were other people, and you not concerned. There's Marget and Wilhelm, engaged; on the other side you and Joseph, as good as engaged. A stranger comes along, and you and Marget brush your lovers aside and fall in love with him. If it is scandalous in Marget, why then it seems to me –«

»Now that's enough – I don't want to hear any more about it. I never saw such a wandering mind.«

»Wandering mind, indeed! Where is my mind wandering, I'd like to know?«

»Yes, I should think you would. But don't try – nobody can find out. You'll only fatigue yourself.«

It was a shame to put me down like that and walk over me, so to speak, when I was certainly in the right. I ought to have known that when a woman gets her head set, particularly in a love matter, she hasn't any sense and isn't any more movable by argument than a stump is; but I was but a lad, and didn't know the crazy make of them.

I dropped the matter, since I had to, and then I went at the matter which I had mainly come to talk about. For Lilly's own happiness I wanted to save her while there was yet time, from irrevocably engaging her heart in this hopeless chase. So I led up to it in a grave and impressive introduction of some length, and when I believed I had sufficiently prepared her for the blow, I said –

»My dear, dear sister, be warned: he does not love you, and he never can.«

Storm-fires began to gather in her eyes, and she rose and sat up in the bed and looked me over, much as a comet looks a little dog over that has been trying to help it conduct its excursion in the safest way.

»You think so!« she said. »I wish to ask you a question

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