Vol 3 Section 1037

Mrs. Clemens thanks you ever so much for the lovely Easter token, which arrived this morning & brought us all very near to you & most pleasantly. Mrs. Clemens tells me to send you her love & say that she has missed you so much this winter, and many & many a time has wished you back.

Yes—& fervently I wished it too, & cursed myself liberally & comprehensively for ever allowing you to get beyond Gibraltar.

The madam has never gotten back to where she was in those November days when she could sit up & be wheeled all about the house.

My love & the family’s to Dr. Moffatt, per telephone [MTP].

Katharine I. Harrison wrote to Sam, enclosing a letter from Miss Lancashire, whom she did not know nor thought was any relative of Mr. Charles Lancashire. She was glad to know Livy was better [MTP]. Note: Miss Lancashire’s note is not extant.

April 6 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Marchesa Alli Macarani / Lung Arno del Tempio 2 / Spanish Consul / 1s t & 3d Wednesday s. / Princess de Rohan” [NB 47 TS 8].

Edward B. Caulfield wrote “a hurried pencil note” to Sam, that he would be engaged after 12 the following day and could not stop by [MTP].

Harper & Brothers wrote a short note that they were sending six copies of Extracts from Adam’s Diary with their compliments [MTP].

Carlo Paladini, Florence journalist, wrote to Sam, asking if he might write an article about Clara and her musical talent, and at the same time have a talk with him about his “artistic impression in Italy and a judgment of Italian music by an American point of view.” Also, he wished photographs of Clara and Mark Twain [MTP].

April 7 Thursday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister in Leysin, Switzerland.

Your very delightful brother [Dr. Donald MacAlister] arrived a day or two ahead of your letter [See Apr. 3] in which you suggested a consultation between him & our doctor—a thing which could easily have been arranged, I am sure, if the letter had come in time. No, in the circumstances it couldn’t, for our doctor did not come that day, & it turned out that he was abed, with a temperature of 104. He is out & on his feet again, to-day, looking pretty well bleached.

What am I doing? The same I have been doing for 20 months: watching the madam. That and (these past 3 months) dictating my autobiography 2 hours a day. Part of the afternoon is put in with the pen, on one or the other of a couple of very lengthy novels (both begun 2 years ago & not liable to be finished this good while).

However, there is a friend of mine who told me last night about a company which he hopes to float in London in June or July—capital to be very large. There will be Founders shares. I will ask him if they are to be acquired by friends of mine for serviced rendered in the flotation, & will let you know. And I will ask if Mr. C. of New York, banker & millionaire, a very shrewd man, is in it. (Spends half of each year here, & is here now.) I know him. The idea is, to kill Great Britain’s coal trade with Italy, France, & Germany by furnishing a very cheap & competent & exhaustless fuel drawn from Tuscan sources. If you feel interested, I will post you further when I can.

I note your remark, “I will put aside for you 500 or 1000 shares (whichever you prefer), & if, at the end of a year, they are paying, or are worth their par value (in the market), you can pay for them with Plasmon Founders Shares—say at the rate of 3 P. F.’s for 1000 £s.”

Good—& very much obliged. Please devote 3 of the P. F.’s to that purpose.

SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.