Page:Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene Field.djvu/138

 THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT

This story was told by Clemens at the American Embassy, Vienna.

"She was the littlest, the sweetest maiden of about ten I have ever seen, and she came dancing up to me with a smile and wink that was simply bewitching. I was going home to 27 Fifth Avenue after a tiresome dinner where I had to make a speech (had to—God bless the organizer of the dinner, for I won't), and I was as tired as two dogs and as grumpy as seven bears, when this vision suddenly burst upon me. I saw at once that the little one was as happy as a lark, and naturally I beamed on her, for I love children.

"As she was tripping along just as if I had been her grandpa—trusting me with little confidences and petting my arm, she prattled about the moon that would soon come up and the bogies and the bats and about the fright they gave her, and I said:

"'Little maid, hadn't you better go home? Your mother may be anxious about you.'

"'Oh, no,' she said; 'mamma knows I am out and she is at the window watching. She knows that I am walking with you, for I wanted to a lot of times.'

"Well, I felt as proud as Pierpont Morgan on discovering a Fifteenth Century missal and buying it for five dollars. And in my mind I 134