Then there were hand-shakings, and congratulations, and hopes, and
so on, and the old ladies parted, perfectly happy--the one in knowing
something which the rest of the town didn't, and the other in having
been the sole person able to furnish that knowledge.
The visitor who had called to see the twins was the Rev. Mr. Hotchkiss,
pastor of the Baptist church. At the reception Angelo had told him he
had lately experienced a change in his religious views, and was
now desirous of becoming a Baptist, and would immediately join Mr.
Hotchkiss's church. There was no time to say more, and the brief talk
ended at that point. The minister was much gratified, and had dropped in
for a moment now, to invite the twins to attend his Bible class at eight
that evening. Angelo accepted, and was expecting Luigi to decline, but
he did not, because he knew that the Bible class and the Freethinkers
met in the same room, and he wanted to treat his brother to the
embarrassment of being caught in free-thinking company.
CHAPTER V. GUILT AND INNOCENCE FINELY BLENT
[A long and vigorous quarrel follows, between the twins. And there is
plenty to quarrel about, for Angelo was always seeking truth, and this
obliged him to change and improve his religion with frequency, which
wearied Luigi, and annoyed him too; for he had to be present at each new
enlistment--which placed him in the false position of seeming to indorse
and approve his brother's fickleness; moreover, he had to go to Angelo's
prohibition meetings, and he hated them. On the other hand, when it was
his week to command the legs he gave Angelo just cause of complaint, for
he took him to circuses and horse-races and fandangoes, exposing him to
all sorts of censure and criticism; and he drank, too; and whatever
he drank went to Angelo's head instead of his own and made him
act disgracefully. When the evening was come, the two attended the
Free-thinkers' meeting, where Angelo was sad and silent; then came the
Bible class and looked upon him coldly, finding him in such company.
Then they went to Wilson's house and Chapter XI of Pudd'nhead Wilson
follows, which tells of the girl seen in Tom Driscoll's room; and closes
with the kicking of Tom by Luigi at the anti-temperance mass-meeting
of the Sons of Liberty; with the addition of some account of Roxy's
adventures as a chamber-maid on a Mississippi boat. Her exchange of
the children had been flippantly and farcically described in an earlier
chapter.]
Next morning all the town was a-buzz with great news; Pudd'nhead Wilson
had a law case! The public astonishment was so great and the public
curiosity so intense, that when the justice of the peace opened his
court, the place was packed with people and even the windows were
full. Everybody was flushed and perspiring; the summer heat was almost
unendurable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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