when your letter came three weeks ago, i was afraid i should not be able to write immediately, so i cabled you to employ the master in private lessons. i think the idea of the private lessons is excellent; it will be money well spent. i return the master’s letter. i am glad he is able to speak so highly, and decidedly. i believe what he says, but if he had spoken less favorably, i should have doubted his word. i saw mr. st. gaudautⒶemendation for a moment the other day in new york, and he inquired after you with great interest. mr. bunce has returned from venice, and brings pitcuresⒶemendation which are highly praised by the boston press. mr. vedder is in new york now. he took prang’s $1000. prize for christmas card. have you run across the young artist named walter f. brown?.Ⓐemendation when we were in paris in 1878, he lived at 27 rue jacob in the latin quarter. he illustrated my book tramp abroad. you need not hunt him up, i do not feel as strong an interest in him as i did at first, i mean as an artist, for i have concluded that his talent is small, but i take a friendly interest in him and would like to know how he is prospering if you should happen to hear any of his friends speak of him. he never could destroy any of his work, and i thought it a bad sign. he did not tear up pictures which i rejected, but would save them, and bring them round again after a week or two, and show by his manner that he could not bear to give up any of those children of his fancy, and seemed all the tenderer towards them when they were afflicted with deformities. this gave me the conviction that he never would amount to anything. i want to apologize for not writing in my customary hand, because i am full of rheumatism and laziness. we are expecting another letter from you, i hope to get it in a day or two. everybody is sick, and all send love. we have been through a long seigeⒶemendation of house building and decorating, and have had a good deal of company in the house; therefore mrs. clemens has not been able to write, but she is going to presently when she gets relief from those things.