Have been to see Mrs. Perkins. She approves. Therefore Mary goes to her friends tomorrow to remain till we return (excuse bad writing, for I am in a horse-car—it has stopped on a switch now) home, & George stays in the house; at present with the policeman (whom we will soon send away).

I sent for Mary awhile ago & took her evidence. Then sent for Lizzy & said “Littl “Lizzy, your friend slept with you the night he left this house so early in the morning.” She confessed.

She had lied so valiantly, & carried her difficult part so well & with such excellent temper that I began to pity her, now, especially when she said she was lost irretrievably & her betrayer was manifestly never going to marry her.

I told her it was now of course necessary to discharge her at once & send her out of the house. She acknowledged that there could be no other course.

Then I laid a plan for her to follow during the next two hours, & tell nobody what it was. (I have been detective Simon Wheeler for 24 hours, now.)

Then I walked part way down town & got some information I needed. Walked home, g noted down some facts from Lizzy’s lips; gave wrote a note & gave it to her, to be delivered in case of necessity, but not otherwise. Then took that street car & went down to the Court House & paid a man to do a few minutes’ work for me (Do you follow these detective maunderings, “Jany?”)1explanatory note

Then went to barber shop & got shaved. Then took a hack in a pouring rain & drove to telegraph office; then to the bank; then to Chief of Police. Concerted a plan, & said I would send him a note & a hack inside of 30 minutes. Drove home. Where’s Lizzy? “Gone, 20 minutes ago, sir.” Perdition! “George, jump into the hack & fly! Take this note & give it to the Chifef of Police; take a detective, go to 575 Main street, & from there get on Lizzy’s track & give her this other note. Beware—don’t fail!” (AhⒶemendation, what a Simon Wheeler I was getting to be!)

Then I went down town to take dinner with a friend (told George where I should be). Sat there with him ages & ages chaffing and joking about things, & watching the clock.

At six, sharp, enter George. George: “They’re on their way, by another conveyance; your riⒶemendation hack’s at the door.”

Enter at the same moment, a domestic. Domestic: “Dinner is on the table.”

I didn’t wait for dinner. I said “Keep co mine cool on a plate till I come.”

Gave George some directions & then rushed home in the hack. WⒶemendation Went to our N. E. room & watched, through the window, stroking & petting stray kit, but almost unconscious of it. One hack—another hack—a buggy—a grocer’s wagon—another buggy, in the pouring rain. They all pass by. What in the nation is the matter? By & by a street car. Good! NoⒶemendation, it stops at Forest street—lets out a man. I curse that horse-car & think something has failed somewhere. NowⒶemendation comes a man walking up the yard. Good! Don’t know him, but any arrival promises something.

Enter Mary, excited: “They’re here! Where shall I put them?” I—“Put them in the study—but let me get there first. You & George be within call.—but out of sight. If you are in the kitchen, come a-booming at 3 taps of the study bell.” They say they will be in the kitchen—(that was merely on account of the dramatic grandeur of those 3 bell-taps.)

“Where shall we put the other man?” I—“Put him in the library & leave the door open.”

I stand in the study. Enter Lizzy, with a tall, muscular, handsome fellow of 35. “This is my friend, Willie Taylor, Mr. Clemens.”

I shake hands with a lying cordiality, shut the door, seat him, begin to talk; he ugly, wanting to quarrel, I sweet & calm, resolved beforehand that to lose my temper was to lose my game—& I had started in to win. He snarled; I looked him sweetly in the eye & rebuked him to gentleness, almost; foughtⒶemendation shy of the subject; I gently brought him back to it; he talked of a “put-up job;” I said he could not mean me. He begged pardon, & said he did not. I coaxed him, I argued, I pleaded, half an hour. I sprung a good joke on him. He had to laugh. I had a cigar in his hand & a lighted match under his nose before he was to the middle of his laugh. Lizzy had been crying straight along; now she laughed; he laughed again; I pretended to laugh.—but I was deep in a serious business & it came hard. Four times I worked him almost up to the point I wanted him—made him choke & cry a little occasionally—& four times I failed & lost—but the fifth time he said, hesitatingly, “I - - I believeⒶemendation I’ll do it—yes,” I am willing, though—”

He never finished that sentence. I sho snatched open the door rang three bells (& instantly enter George & Mary!; I snatched the door leading to Mother’s bath-room open & said “the Rev. Mr. Twichell will come in.”Ⓐemendation—here is the license”—(which I had procured in the afternoon.)2explanatory note

Enter Joe & marries them, in presence of the witnesses—this bridegroomⒶemendation murmuring a moment later, “But it was a put-up job.”

Lizzy cried through the service & the prayer, & then her husband put his arm about her neck & kissed her & shed a tear & said “Don’t cry.”

Enter George with champagne & glasses, deliv places his waiter first before Lizz & says, “Champagne if you please, Mrs. Taylor.” Whereat, general jollity.

Then I drank long life & health to the couple, gave them a hundred dollars apiece trifle (for they’d only four dollars between them) told them to go to - - - anywhere that they could be happy, & then Joe & I marched back to his house & he ate dinner; but the strain was all over, now, & a dish of soup sufficed for me.

Then I read my play to Joe & Harmony (how like a Simon Wheeler I’ve been all day!) & then I came home & here I am in bed.3explanatory note

Do you see my plan? The man in the library was a detective in plain clothes. If persuasion had failed with Mr. Taylor, my purpose was to lock the door & say “You either leave this room a married man or you leave it a with an officer, & charged with being in this house at midnight in March with a dishonest intent—take your choice.”4explanatory note

But I love you, Livy dear, anywayⒶemendation.