[The Prince and The Pauper by Mark Twain]@TWC D-Link book
The Prince and The Pauper

CHAPTER VII
7/9

His twitching nose was pleading more urgently than ever for relief.

At last nature broke down the barriers of etiquette: Tom lifted up an inward prayer for pardon if he was doing wrong, and brought relief to the burdened hearts of his court by scratching his nose himself.
His meal being ended, a lord came and held before him a broad, shallow, golden dish with fragrant rosewater in it, to cleanse his mouth and fingers with; and my lord the Hereditary Diaperer stood by with a napkin for his use.

Tom gazed at the dish a puzzled moment or two, then raised it to his lips, and gravely took a draught.

Then he returned it to the waiting lord, and said-- "Nay, it likes me not, my lord: it hath a pretty flavour, but it wanteth strength." This new eccentricity of the prince's ruined mind made all the hearts about him ache; but the sad sight moved none to merriment.
Tom's next unconscious blunder was to get up and leave the table just when the chaplain had taken his stand behind his chair, and with uplifted hands, and closed, uplifted eyes, was in the act of beginning the blessing.

Still nobody seemed to perceive that the prince had done a thing unusual.
By his own request our small friend was now conducted to his private cabinet, and left there alone to his own devices.


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