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Thompson added Seth-Smith’s name when, presumably as an afterthought, Clemens decided that he, as well as Sergeant, should receive a fair copy of this dictated response. Lewis Sergeant (1841–1902) was educated at Cambridge. After working as a schoolmaster he became an editor, and was long associated with the Athenaeum and the London Chronicle. He wrote several books, among them Introduction to English Composition (1872) and Elementary Mathematics in Connection with Science and Art Departments (1873). Nothing has been learned about Sergeant’s introduction to Clemens in 1872, except that as secretary of the Anti-Game-Law League he edited the society’s circular, a copy of which Clemens acquired during his 1872 visit to England (CU-MARK). They clearly did renew their acquaintance in 1873, however, for in December, Sergeant, who was then editor of the London Examiner, wrote to Ambrose Bierce that he had obtained his

Bierce declined the request. In 1878 Sergeant published New Greece and became honorary secretary for the Greek committee in London, serving until his death. No record has been found, beyond this draft, of Clemens’s acquaintance with Charles E. Seth-Smith (1847–94). In 1876 Seth-Smith was made a sublieutenant in the Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers, and from 1884 to 1892 was a lieutenant in command of the London corps. He became a barrister in 1887 and practiced in admiralty court. It is possible that Clemens’s prior encounter with him was as recent as 23 June in Portsmouth, at the naval review organized for the shah ( BBA , s.v. “Sergeant, Lewis” Griffiths, 513; Boase, 3:496; SLC 1873).