The thing I had in my mind, when I went to see Nat Goodwin play, was, to offer him the play at one-third of the profits, & we keep the two-thirds. You perceive that the ingenious Mallory has been sent the same idea from on high—with this exception: that he will take one of our thirds—for what sufficient service, I would like to know? For risking the amount of capital necessary to start the piece on the boards? I don’t need his help there—neither do I need any of his peculiar book-keeping.

Hang Mallory. Drop him.

The thing I grieve about, is, that he has been seen, when the seeing him was a matter of absolute unimportance, & Lewis has not been seen, when the seeing him was matter of the very first importance.

The thing to do, now, is to drop Mallory entirely, as regards this play, until we have some idle time to fool away on him; & see Lewis without delay.

After seeing Lewis, see Nat Goodwin. After you have got Le Goodwin’s terms, he can see the piece (I mean the Sellers piece,) & not before. There was not the least sense in Howells’s allowing Mallory to see the piece before offering terms for it. If he had first offered these brilliant terms of his, that would have spared him the opportunity of examining the play.

Tom Sawyer is finished; & it is a good play—a good acting play. There is nothing in your hands half as important as seeing Lewis—so let’s drop everything else until that is attended to.

I am not finding fault with you, for I gave you authority to act upon Howells’s suggestion—still, I never meant that this Sellers business should stand for a moment in the way or take precedence of Tom Sawyer.

Thanks, I’m mighty glad to get the pen.