11 and 19 April 1881 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NNWH and ViU, UCCL 01935)
Next time you start four letters to us, Mrs. G., let them come along—never mind about their being badly written—they’ll find plenty of company in our mail. And then one must remember that the badder a body writes a letter the more naturalness & absence of artifice there’ll be in it—& these are by all odds the most valuable virtues a letter can have. It will be worth a ton of diamonds to you to treasure up that little fact, Madam, & not forget it.
I was going to write the other day when Mr. Gerhardt’s first letter came, but we had been “sitting” the children at Bundy’s, & so I thought I would hold on till some of the pictures came, in order that I might lighten up my letter with them. Then when they did come, Mr. Bundy came also, & photographed the baby, in the nursery, in a state of total stark nakedness; & of course I made up my mind to wait till I could get a specimen from that negative to send along, too. It hasn’t come yet, but I’ll send down tomorrow & hurry it up. I must remember to add a picture of Mrs. Clemens, also—I haven’t a new one of myself; the last one taken was the one Mr. Gerhardt modeled the medallion from.
Mr. Howells (late editor of the Atlantic Monthly) & his wife (sister of Larkin G. Mead, the sculptor,) were with us the other day, & we took them to the stable & unveiled the statuary. They were mightily pleased with it all—& they are capable critics.
I dasn’t tell you the name of my new book yet. Have to keep it secret (for business reasons) till toward September—but ll I’ll tell you then. The name isn’t copyrighted yet—that is one of the reasons we keep still about it, though it is not the principal one.
Go on with your French, Mrs. Hattie, & when you have got the hang of it, give those people “rats”—I mean, in the way of cheating them. They deserve it. They will get no sympathy from us. I remember how they used to charge us 3 francs for a stick of wood the time we lived four or five months at the Hotel de Normandie, corner of the rue St. Honoré & the rue de l’Echelle. However, it’s a nice hotel.
Meantime, luck & prosperity bide with you both—as doth our love.
P. S. The enclosed card came to me by post. I wrote & made inquiries, & they said several assessments could be paid in advance if preferred. So I sent a check for six dollars by mail., & asked for a receipt to send to you, but it did not come, & I have received no reply. I think you had better write the treasurer & require him to send you a receipt.
One week Later—Apl. 19. The Madam wanted to write, too, so I have kept my letter open for her; but she has been driven to death & has found no time—so I will start mine along before it begins to decay from old age—she can send the photographs in hers.
MS, NNWH, is source text for the letter; MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman Library, ViU, is source text for the postscript.
MicroPUL, reel 2.