O dear me, what a world it is! We all catch it, sinners & saints alike—but still I thought you deserved to escape, and I am sure there must be some mistake in your case. But I must not stop to moralize, for my day’s work is before me, & time rushes. (I work six solid days every week—nothing short of it will ever finish this book.)

We are in Europe mainly to cut down our intolerable expenses our expenses, & we are doing it the best we can—so I am going to send you the minor figure which you propose,—viz, $1000. I am afraid you ain’t any better financier than I am—for when you ask me to lend you $1000 or $2000 on property worth more than $15,000 you are taking heaps of unnecessary trouble. You can borrow three times that amount on that property right in Cleveland. However, it ain’t for a son to teach his mother finance. PossiblyⒶemendation you do not want the thing public? I had not thought of that. But you can trust Charley Langdon, & there is small doubt that he would furnish you the other $1000 which you want. What you say about Mr. Gaylord astounds me; for I did not know he was a rascal, I thought he was only a fool. (There now, I have let my opinion slip, & if your relations should presently resume their former state, you’ll hold a grudge against me.)

Now don’t think hard of me for writing in this light vein when you are in trouble—I don’t mean any harm—& I mustn’t get into a mournful mood, it isn’t suited to the chapter I have mapped out for today’s work—but exactly the reverse. I can’t burlesque the Mr. Whymper & the other fantastic Alp-climbers with a solemn underpinning to my thought—It it would be a failure.

By George, now I know what stirred up that hornest’s nest in Hartford! It was Charley’s pictures. PrivatelyⒶemendation (it must not be mentioned—to anybody—not even to Charley or his father) I’m in the midst of a quarrel with the American pPublishing Company, & Charley’s sending those pictures there was an awful mistake. It never occurred to me to remark that they should be sent here—to me.Ⓐemendation drawn on paper, not on the wood. That was an important omission on my part. Consound it, I do get into more trouble than any ass that ever lived. I sometimes wish to gracious I never had been born an ass.

Well, this vein won’t answer for that chapter, if I proceed with it——so I will send you & my dear Mollie & all whom you love the love of this family in unstinted measure—& drop business letter-writing & go to work.