A Tramp Abroad — Volume 07 by Mark Twain
page 56 of 159 (35%)
page 56 of 159 (35%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
latter if he killed himself--for his loss would be my gain
in a literary way, and I was willing to pay a fair price for the item --but this impostor ended his intensely moving performance by simply adding some powder to the liquid and polishing the spoon! Then he held it aloft, and he could not have shown a wilder exultation if he had achieved an immortal miracle. The crowd applauded in a gratified way, and it seemed to me that history speaks the truth when it says these children of the south are easily entertained. We spent an impressive hour in the noble cathedral, where long shafts of tinted light were cleaving through the solemn dimness from the lofty windows and falling on a pillar here, a picture there, and a kneeling worshiper yonder. The organ was muttering, censers were swinging, candles were glinting on the distant altar and robed priests were filing silently past them; the scene was one to sweep all frivolous thoughts away and steep the soul in a holy calm. A trim young American lady paused a yard or two from me, fixed her eyes on the mellow sparks flecking the far-off altar, bent her head reverently a moment, then straightened up, kicked her train into the air with her heel, caught it deftly in her hand, and marched briskly out. We visited the picture-galleries and the other regulation "sights" of Milan--not because I wanted to write about them again, but to see if I had learned anything in twelve years. I afterward visited the great galleries of Rome and |
|