26 February 1878 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H and NN-BGC, UCCL 02522)
Imagined my silence meant something wicked?—Lord bless me, I never thought of such a thing!
Yes, & I must see you before I go; we must all see each other. Now if you folks can by any possibility snatch a few days & run down here before March 25,—any time—one date as good as another for us—we shall be ever so grateful. It seems mean to ask this concession of you when we stand so largely in your debt on visiting account, but you know this is a pretty big concern to tear up, disband & put in order for a year or two’s absence, so I doubt if the month before us is any more timeⒶemendation than necessary for the madam to accomplish it in. I could go to ◇ My own affairs require a little attention from day to day, too, since I must leave them as straight as I can m.
Here you will find no atmosphere of work whatever, because I’ve laid aside the pen till I reach Europe, so if you can come here we shall have an utter respite from the “shop” & all its belongings, & you may even be able to forget, for the time, that you are an editor & fettered with obligations. Send me a card to say how the chances are.
Our plan is to leave here for Elmira March 25. We have taken 2 staterooms in the Holsatia, which sails for Hamburg April 11. Miss Clara Spaulding (who is here) goes with us—also Rosa & the children. We shall leave nobody here but Patrick & the horses.
over.
P. S. Have written Frank Pixley that I would speak to you when I see you, & if you were willing to simultane with the Argonaut, all right I would write him so; if you were unwilling I would indicate it by not writing. I didn’t tell him you wouldn’t, because I’m not authorized to speak for you—but told him to write you himself if he preferred. He is a good fellow, but Dam the Argonaut.
P. S.
5 minutes
later.
————
Dear Mrs. Howells:
Mrs. Clemens wrote you a letter, & handed it to me half an hour ago, while I was folding mine to Mr. Howells. I laid that letter on this table before me while I added the paragraph about Pixley’s application. Since then I have been hunting & swearing, & swearing & hunting, but I can’t find a sign of that letter. It is the most astonishing disappearance I ever heard of. Mrs. Clemens has gone off driving—so I will have to try & give you an idea of her communication from memory. Mainly it consisted of an urgent desire that you come & see us next week if you can possibly manage it, for that will be a reposeful time, the turmoil of breaking up beginning the week after. She wants you to tell her about Italy, & advise her in that connection, if you will. Then she spoke of her plans—hers, mind you, for I never have anything quite so definite as a plan. She proposes to stop a fortnight in (confound the place, I’ve forgotten what it was,)—then go on & live in Dresden till some time in the summer; then retire to Switzerland for the hottest season, then stay a while in Venice & put in the winter in Munich—this program subject to modification according to circumstances. She said something about some little by-trips here & there, but they didn’t stick in my memory because the idea doesn’t charm me.
〚They have just telephoned me from the Courant office that Bayard Taylor & family have taken rooms in our ship, the Holsatia, for the 11th April.〛
Do come, if you possibly can!—& remember & don’t forget to avoid letting Mrs. Clemens find out I lost her letter. Just answer th her the same as if you had got it.
MS, letter and postscript to William Dean Howells at MH-H, shelf mark bMS Am 1784 (98), postscript to Elinor M. Howells at NN-BGC.
MTL , 1:320–21, postscript to Elinor Howells only; MTHL , 1:218–21, letter and postscript to William Dean Howells only.
See Howells Letters in Description of Provenanceclick to open letter.