14 December 1873 • London, England (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01005)
My own little darling, my peerless wife, I am simply mad to see you. You don’t know how I love you—you never will. Because you do all the gushing yourself, when we are together, & so there is no use in two of us doing it—& one gusher usually silences another—but an ocean is between us, now, & I have to gush. I simply worship you, Livy dear. You are all in all, to me. I went to Smalley’s to-day, & in my secret heart I thanked Mrs. Smalley for reminding me of you, in her soft, undulating, unstudied grace.1explanatory note But she fell a long way short of you, after all. There is no woman in the whole earth that is so lovely to me as you are, my child. You must forgive me for t not talking all I feel when I am at home, honey. I do feel it, even if I don’t talk it. Will you remember that? Will you remember it & not feel harshly when I do not utter it?
Finle ay is my guest, for this week, & I warm up & am interested as soon as he takes you for a topic. I do so wish I were with you, my Livy.
Mrs. Samℓ. L. Clemens | Hartford | Conn. in upper left corner: America. | rule on flap: slc/mt postmarked: london • w 7 de 16 73 and new york dec 2◇ paid all Ⓐemendation
Phoebe Smalley was a diminutive brunette whom most observers considered “unusually attractive” (Joseph J. Mathews, 77). At her death in 1923, author Kate Douglas Wiggin recalled her as
a rare spirit, very different from and superior to the ordinary woman. ... I met her first in her London house, surrounded on her afternoons at home with clever, interesting, celebrated people. She was never strong and had, even then, the exquisite fragility of porcelain, but she was full of friendliness, hospitality and sympathy. (Wiggin)
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L5 , 518; LLMT , 186–87.
see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.