Jackson, Slote, and Clemens again stayed at the Grand Hôtel du Louvre et de la Paix in Marseilles on the night of 12 July after returning from Paris, where they had been since 6 July. In Paris they had stayed at the Grand Hôtel du Louvre, a “huge, palatial edifice” of seven hundred rooms on the Rue de Rivoli between the Louvre and the Palais Royal (Baedeker 1872, 4). Eliza (Lillie) Wychie Hitchcock (1843–1929), a famous San Francisco belle, was in Paris with her mother, the former Martha Hunter of North Carolina (1818–99). Lillie was well known for her independent spirit and unconventional behavior. According to one contemporary, with her “brilliant accomplishments and personal graces” she “would entertain at one time a circle of twenty gentlemen” (Ellet, 451). During the Civil War, Lillie’s father insisted that she and her mother spend a large part of each year in Paris, fearing that their Southern sympathies might lead to accusations of treason—and perhaps even the confiscation of the family property in the South. In 1862 Lillie became the Paris correspondent of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin, and by 1867 her detailed and well-informed “Letter from Paris
from our lady correspondent.” appeared almost weekly. The firemen of San Francisco’s Knickerbocker Engine Company Number Five made her an honorary member in 1863, because of her enthusiastic interest in fire fighting and her many kindnesses to them (Green, 1, 6, 19, 45; Holdredge, 12, 140–42, 156–58, 217–18). Clemens had known her since 1864, when he and the Hitchcocks were living at the Occidental Hotel. In January 1869, two months after Lillie had eloped with fellow San Franciscan Howard Coit, Clemens recalled that when he “saw the family in Paris, Lily had just delivered the mitten to a wealthy Italian Count, at her mother’s request (Mrs. H. said Lily loved him,)” (Green, 26–27; SLC to OLL, 13 and 14 Jan 69, CU-MARK, in LLMT , 51).

Etta Booth was probably the daughter of Lucius A. Booth of Virginia City, proprietor of the Winfield Mill and Mining Company (Kelly, 161, 175; Angel, 274). Replying to a letter from her in 1877, Clemens recalled, “I first saw you in Virginia City. It was at a ball ... & you were a child then—8 years of age, I think” (SLC to Etta Booth, 10 Sept 77, CU-MARK). In April 1906, having just encountered her by accident on the streets of New York City, Clemens recalled the Virginia City ball in more detail, placing the event at “the beginning of the winter of 1862” and estimating her age at the time as thirteen:

Mrs. Leonard W. Ferris was another Nevada acquaintance. Her husband was probate judge of Storey County in 1861–64, and Clemens stayed with the Ferrises for a time in 1863 after his Virginia City hotel was destroyed by fire. On 18 February 1867 he wrote the Alta that Mrs. Ferris and her daughter were “so-journing” in New York before sailing for France in the City of Paris (SLC to JLC and PAM, 5 Aug 63, L1 , 261–63; SLC 1867). Mrs. John B. Winters, also visiting Paris without her husband, was another Nevada friend, whom Clemens described as “the very image of Pamela.” Her husband was a prominent Nevada businessman, active in mining and milling (SLC to JLC and PAM, 4 June 63, L1 , 257; Doten, 2:933; ET&S2 , 488).

Falstaff’s lament in King Henry IV, Part I, act 5, scene 4: “Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!“