Am waiting for Patrick to come with the carriage—Mrs. Clemens & I are starting (without the children!) to stay indefinitely in Elmira. The wear & tear of settling the house broke her down, & she has been growing weaker & weaker for a fortnight. All that time—in fact ever since I saw you—I have been fighting a life-&-death battle with this infernal book & hoping to get done some day. I required 300 pages of MS, & I have written near 600 since I saw you—& tore it all up except 300 288. This I was about to tear up yesterday & begin again, when Mrs. C Perkins came up to the billiard room & said, “You will never get any woman to do the thing necessary to save her life by mere persuasion; you see you have wasted your words for 3 weeks; it is time to use force; she must have a change; take her home & leave the children here.”

I said, “If there is one death that is painfuller than another, may I get it if I don’t do that thing.”

So I took the 288 pages to Bliss & told him that was the very last line I should ever write on this book. (A book which required 2600 pages, & of MS, & I have written nearer four thousand, first & last.)

I am as soary (& flighty) as a rocket, to-day, with the unutterable joy of getting that Old Man of the Sea off my back, where he has been roosting more than a year & ahalf. Next time I make a contract before writing the book, may I suffer the righteous penalty & be burnt, like the injudicious believer.

I am mighty glad you are done with your book (this is from a man who, above all others, feels m how much that sentence means) & am also mighty glad you have begun the next (this is also from a man who knows the felicity of that, & means straightway to enjoy it.) The Undiscovered starts off delightfully—I have read it aloud to Mrs. C. & we vastly enjoyed it.

Yes, I’ll return you those proofs. I struck out that anecdote, as you recommended; but when I found the page had been stereotyped, in due order, I reinstated it & changed the ending so as to make it inoffensive.

Well, time’s about up—must drop a line to Aldrich.