MARK TWAIN
"This is yesterday to you."
"Certainly it is. But my mind is confused, these days; there are reasons for it. . .Is this the be ginning of the procession?"
"Oh, no, it began to move an hour ago."
"Is there much more of it still to come?"
"Two hours of it. Why do you sigh?"
"Because I should like to see it all."
"And why can t you?"
"I have to go presently."
"You have an engagement?"
After a pause, softly: "Yes." After another pause: "Who are these in the splendid pavilion?"
"The imperial family, and visiting royalties from here and there and yonder in the earth."
"And who are those in the adjoining pavilions to the right and left?"
"Ambassadors and their families and suites to the right; unofficial foreigners to the left."
"If you will be so good, I "
Boom! That distant bell again, tolling the half- hour faintly through the tempest of wind and sleet. The door opened, and the governor and the mother and child entered the woman in widow s weeds! She fell upon her husband s breast in a passion of sobs, and I I could not stay; I could not bear it. I went into the bedchamber, and closed the door. I sat there waiting waiting waiting, and listen ing to the rattling sashes and the blustering of the storm. After what seemed a long, long time, I heard a rustle and movement in the parlor, and knew that the clergyman and the sheriff and the
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