The difficulties of Clara’s position during her mother’s and Jean’s illness—The Susy CraneⒺexplanatory note letter—Mr. Clemens’sⒶtextual note version of Mr. Howells’s story—Taking Mrs. Clemens to Florence, and her death, there.
Several times, in letters written to friends, in those days, I furnished illustrations of the difficulties of Clara’s position. One of these letters was written to Susy Crane at the end of 1902, two months and a half after we had come back from York Harbor.
Some days before Christmas, Jean came in from a long romp in the snow, in the way of coasting, skeeing, and so on, with the young DodgesⒺexplanatory note, and she sat down, perspiring, with her furs on, and wasⒶtextual note presently struck with a violent chill. She fell into the doctor’s hands at once, and by Christmas Eve was become very ill. The disease was double pneumonia. From that time onward, to and beyond the date of this letter, her case was alarming. During all this time her mother never suspected that anything was wrong. She questioned Clara every day concerning Jean’s health, spirits, clothes, employmentsⒶtextual note and amusements, and how she was enjoying herself; and Clara furnished the information right along, in minute detail—every word of it false, of course. Every day she had to tell how Jean dressed; and in time she got so tired of using Jean’s existing clothes over and over again, and trying to get new effects out of them, that finally, as a relief to her hard-worked inventionⒶtextual note she got to adding imaginary clothes to Jean’s wardrobe, and would probably have doubled it and trebled it if a warning note in her mother’s comments had not admonished her that she was spending more money on these spectral gowns and things than the family income justified.
Of course Jean had to have a professional nurse, and a woman named TobinⒺexplanatory note was engaged for that office. Jean’s room was at the other end of the house from her mother’s quarters; and so,Ⓐtextual note doctors and nurses could come and go without their presence being detected by Mrs. Clemens. During the middle, or the end, of January,Ⓐtextual note Jean had become able to be about, and the doctorⒶtextual note ordered a change of scene for her. He said she must be taken South, to Old Point ComfortⒺexplanatory note, and this was done. KatyⒺexplanatory note and Miss Tobin accompanied her, and she remained at Old Point Comfort several weeks. The orders were to stay six weeks, but neither Jean nor Katy could endure that trained nurse, and they returned to Riverdale before the term was up.
[begin page 101]During the whole of Jean’s absence Mrs. Clemens was happy in the thought that she was on the premises; that she was in blooming health; that she was having as joyous a time as any young girl in the region. Clara kept her mother posted, every day, concerning Jean’s movements. On one day she would report Jean as being busy with her wood-carving; the next day she would have Jean hard at work at her language-studiesⒶtextual note; the day after, she would report Jean as being busy typewriting literature for me. In the course of time she got as tired of these worn stage-propertiesⒶtextual note as she had of Jean’s clothes, before.
I will here insert the Susy Crane letterⒺexplanatory note.Ⓐtextual note
Clara’s Day. Ⓐtextual note
In bed, 9 p.m.
Riverdale, Dec. 29/02.
Susy dear, twoⒶtextual note hours ago, Clara was recounting her day to me. Of course I can’t get any of it right, there’s so much detail; but with your YorkⒶtextual note Harbor experienceⒺexplanatory note of the hardships attendant upon sick-room lying, you will get an idea, at any rate,Ⓐtextual note of what a time that poor child has every day, picking her way through traps and pitfalls, and just barely escaping destruction two or three times in every hour.
[To-day. Jean’s other lung attacked; a crisis expected to-night—Dr. JanewayⒺexplanatory note to beⒶtextual note summoned in the morning. Our doctor is to stay all night.]
Of course Clara does not go to her Monday lesson in New YorkⒶtextual note to-day, on Jean’s account—but forgets that fact,Ⓐtextual note and enters her mother’s room (where she has no business to be,)Ⓐtextual note toward train-time, dressed in a wrapper.
Livy. Why Clara, aren’t you going to your lesson?
Clara. (Almost caught). Ⓐtextual note Yes.
Livy. In that costume?
Cl. Oh, no.
L. Well, you can’t make your train, it’s impossible.
Cl. Ⓐtextual note I know, but I’m going to take the other one.
L. Indeed that won’t do—you’ll be ever so much too late for your lesson.
Cl. No, the lesson-time has been put an hour later. [Lie.]Ⓐtextual note
L. (Satisfied. Then suddenly). Ⓐtextual note But Clara, that train and the late lesson together will make you late to Mrs. Hapgood’s luncheonⒺexplanatory note.
Cl. No, the train leaves fifteenⒶtextual note minutes earlier than it used to. [Lie.]Ⓐtextual note
L. (Satisfied).Ⓐtextual note Tell Mrs. Hapgood etc. etc. etc.Ⓐtextual note ( which Clara promises to do Ⓐtextual note ). Clara dear, after the luncheon—I hate to put this on you—but could you do two or three little shopping-errands for me?—it is a pity to send Miss LyonⒶtextual note all the way to New YorkⒶtextual note for so little.
Cl. Oh, it won’t trouble me a bit—I can do it. ( Takes a list of the things she is to buy—a list which she will presently hand to Miss Lyon and send her to New York to make the purchases Ⓐtextual note ).
L. (Reflectively). Ⓐtextual note What is that name? Tobin—Toby—no, it’s Tobin—Miss Tobin.
Cl. Ⓐtextual note ( Turning cold to the marrow, but exhibiting nothing—Miss Tobin is Jean’s trained nurse Ⓐtextual note ). What about Tobin—or Miss Tobin? Who is it?
L. A nurse—trained nurse. They say she is very good, and not talkative. Have you seen her?
[begin page 102]Cl. ( Desperately—not knowing anything to say in this mysterious emergencyⒶtextual note). Seen her? A Miss Tobin? No. Who is it?
L. ( To Clara’s vast relief Ⓐtextual note ). Oh, I don’t know. The doctor spoke of her—and praised her. I suppose it was a hint that we need another. But I didn’t respond, and he dropped the matter. Miss SherryⒺexplanatory note is enough; we don’t need another. If he approaches you about it, discourage him. I think it is time you were dressing, dear—remember and tell Mrs. Hapgood what I told you.
[Exit Clara—still alive—finds Miss Sherry waiting in the hall. They rehearse some lies together for mutual protection. Clara goes and hovers around in Jean’s part of the house and pays her frequent visits of a couple of minutes but does not allow her to talk. At 3 or 4 p.m. takes the things Miss Lyon has brought from New York; studies over her part a little, then goes to her mother’s room.]Ⓐtextual note
Livy. It’s very good of you, dear. Of course if I had known it was going to be so snowy and drizzlyⒶtextual note and sloppy I wouldn’t have asked you to buy them. Did you get wet?
Cl. Oh, nothing to hurt.
L. You took a cab, both ways?
Cl. Not from the stationⒶtextual note to the lesson—the weather was good enough till that was over.
L. Well, now, tell me everything Mrs. Hapgood said.
[Clara tells her a long story, avoiding novelties and surprises and anything likely to inspire questions difficult to answer; and of course detailing the menu, for if it had been the feeding of the five thousandⒺexplanatory note, Livy would have insisted on knowing what kind of bread it was and how the fishes were served. By and by, while talking of something else—]Ⓐtextual note
Livy. Clams!—in the end of December. Are you sure it was clams?
Cl. I didn’t say cl— I meant blue-points.
L. (Tranquillized). Ⓐtextual note It seemed odd. What is Jean doing?
Cl. She said she was going to do a little typewritingⒶtextual note. [Lie, of course; Jean being hardly alive.]Ⓐtextual note
L. Has she been out to-day?
Cl. Only a moment, right after luncheon. She was determined to go out again, but—
L. How did you know she was out?
Cl. (Saving herself in time). Ⓐtextual note Katy told me. She was determined to go out again in the rain and snow, but I persuaded her to stay in.
L. (With moving and grateful admiration). Ⓐtextual note Clara you are wonderful! the wise watch you keep over Jean, and the influence you have over her; it’s so lovely of you, and I tied here and can’t take care of her myself. (And she goes on with these undeserved praises till Clara is expiring with shame). Ⓐtextual note How did John HowellsⒺexplanatory note seem yesterday?
Cl. Oh, he was very well. Of course it seemed pretty desolate in that big dining roomⒶtextual note with only two at table.
L. Why only two? Ⓐtextual note
Cl. Ⓐtextual note (Stupidly) Ⓐtextual note. Well—er—papa doesn’t count.
L. But doesn’t Jean count?
Cl. (Almost caught again). Ⓐtextual note Why, yes, she counts of course,—makes up the number—but she doesn’t say anything—never talks.
[begin page 103]L. Did she walk with you?
Cl. A little way. Then we met the Dodges and she went off coasting with them.
L. (Wonderingly). Ⓐtextual note Sunday?
Cl. (Up a stump for a moment). Ⓐtextual note Well, they don’t every Sunday. They didn’t last Sunday.
[Livy was apparently satisfied. Jean said, some weeks ago, that Clara is the only person who can tell her mother an improbable lie and get it believed; and that it is because Clara has never before told her any lies.] Ⓐtextual note
L. When did Mark HambourgⒶtextual note Ⓔexplanatory note come?
Cl. Just as John was leaving.
L. I kept waiting to hear the piano. Wasn’t it dull for him with no music? Why didn’t you take him to the piano?
Cl. I did offer, but he had a headache. [Lie.]Ⓐtextual note
[The piano is too close to Jean—it would have disturbed her.]Ⓐtextual note
This is a pretty rude sketch, AuntⒶtextual note Sue, and all the fine things are left out—I mean the exceedingly close places which Clara is constantly getting into and then slipping out just alive by a happy miracle of impromptu subterfuge and fraud. The whole thing would be funny, if it were not so heart-breakingly pathetic and tragic.
I have the strongest desire to call you to us, but the doctor wouldn’t let you see Livy; and if he did—but he wouldn’t.Ⓐtextual note
Dec. 30. 6 a.m. Ⓐtextual note—(which is about dawn). Ⓐtextual note I have been up to Jean’s room, and find all quiet there—Jean sleeping. Miss Tobin whispered, “She has had a splendid night.” The doctor (and Clara)Ⓐtextual note had put in an appearance a couple of times in the night and gone back to bed, finding things going well.
When one considers that Clara had been practisingⒶtextual note these ingenuities for two months and a half, and that she was to continue to practiseⒶtextual note them daily for a year and a half longer, one gets something of a realizing sense of the difficulties and perils of the office she was filling. I will furnish here another sample.Ⓐtextual note
Letter to Reverend Joseph H. TwichellⒺexplanatory note.
Riverdale-on-the-HudsonⒶtextual note
The Last day of a—in some respects—
Tough Year, being a.d. 1902.
Dear Joe—
It is 10 a.m., and the post has just brought your good greeting of yesterday. Yesterday at mid-afternoon there was a memorable episode: I was in Livy’s presence twoⒶtextual note minutes and odd,Ⓐtextual note (the trained nurse holding the watch in her hand) for the first timeⒶtextual note in three and a halfⒶtextual note months.
Livy was radiant! (AndⒶtextual note I didn’t spoil it by saying, “JeanⒶtextual note is lying low with pneumonia these seven days.”)Ⓐtextual note
[AⒶtextual note good deal of the rest of the week, Joe,Ⓐtextual note can be found in my ChristmasⒶtextual note story (Harper’s)Ⓐtextual note entitled “Was it Heaven? Or Hell?”Ⓔexplanatory note which is largelyⒶtextual note a true story and was written in York Harbor in August or September.]Ⓐtextual note
In that story mother and daughter are ill, and the lying is attended to by a pair of [begin page 104] aged aunts—assisted by the doctor, of course, though I suppress hisⒶtextual note share to make the story short. In this Riverdale home the liars are the doctor, Clara, and Miss Sherry (Livy’s trained nurse). Those are the regulars. I am to see Livy again to-day for two or three minutes,Ⓐtextual note and it is possible that she may say “Who was it you were talking with at breakfast?—I made out a man’s voice.” (And confuse me.)Ⓐtextual note (The man was the doctor; he spends his nights here with Jean, and is not due to visit Livy until noon—he lives two or threeⒶtextual note miles away.) She sent Miss Sherry down to ask that question, during breakfast. We three consulted, and sent back word it was a stranger. It will be like Livy to ask me whatⒶtextual note stranger it was. Therefore I am to go prepared with a strangerⒶtextual note calculated to fill the bill.
Yesterday morning the doctor left here at nineⒶtextual note and made his rounds in Yonkers, then came back and paid Livy his usual noon visit; but this morning he had a patient or so within half a mile of here, and to save travelⒶtextual note he thought it would be a good idea to go straight up to Livy from the breakfast table; so he sent up to say he had called in passing, and couldn’t he come up and see Livy now? Of course she said yes, and he went up. He ought to have kept still;Ⓐtextual note but some devil of injudacity moved him to say—
“Mr. Clemens says you are looking distinctly better than when he last saw you,Ⓐtextual note in York.”
Livy was back at him instantly:
“Why—have you seen him? How did you come to see him since yesterday afternoon?”
Luckily the doctor did not exhibitⒶtextual note the joggle she had given him, but said composedly—
“I ran across him in the hall a minute ago when I came in.”
So then he had to get Miss Sherry outside and arrange with her to tell me that that was how he came to know my opinion of the patient’s looks. To make doubly sure he hunted me up and told me himself; then called Clara and instructed her; for although her watch is not in the forenoon, she takes Miss Sherry’s place a little while every morning while Miss Sherry goes down and plans Livy’s foodⒶtextual note for the day with the cook.
I am to see Livy a moment every afternoon until she has another bad night;Ⓐtextual note and I stand in dread,Ⓐtextual note for with all my practice I realize that in a sudden emergency I am but a poor clumsy liar, whereas a fine alert and capable emergency-liar is the only sort that is worth anything in a sick-chamber.
NowⒶtextual note, Joe, just see what reputation can do. All Clara’s life she has told Livy the truthⒶtextual note and now the reward comes: Clara lies to her three and a halfⒶtextual note hours every day,Ⓐtextual note and Livy takesⒶtextual note it all at par, whereas even when I tell her a truthⒶtextual note it isn’t worth muchⒶtextual note without corroboration.Ⓐtextual note
Clara’s talents are worked plenty hard enough without this new call upon them—Jean. Of course we do not want Jean to know her own danger,Ⓐtextual note and that the doctor is spending his nights thirtyⒶtextual note feet from her. Yesterday at sunrise Clara carried an order from him to Jean’s nurse; and being worn and not at her brightest self, she delivered it in Jean’s hearing. At once Jean spoke up:
“What is the doctor doing here—is mamma worse?”
It brought Clara to herself, and she said—
“No. He telephonedⒶtextual note this order late last night, and said let it go into effect at six or sevenⒶtextual note this morning.”
[begin page 105]This morning Clara forgot herself again. She was in a long hall that leads past Jean’s room, and called out to Katy about something, “TakeⒶtextual note it to the doctor’s room!”
Then she flew to explain to Jean with an explanatory lie, and was happy to find that Jean was asleep and hadn’t heard.
I wish Clara were not so hard driven—so that she could take a pen and put upon paper all the details of one of her afternoons in her mother’s roomⒺexplanatory note. Day before yesterday (Monday), for instance. We were all desperately frightened and anxious about Jean (both lungs affected, temperature 104 2/5, with high pulse and blazing fever),Ⓐtextual note the whole household moving aimlessly about with absent and vacant faces—and Clara sitting miserable at heart but outwardly smiling, and telling her happy mother what good times Jean was having, coasting and carrying on out in the snow with the Dodges these splendid winter days! * * * *Ⓐtextual note
Joe, Livy is the happiest person you ever saw. And she has had it all to herself for a whole week. What a week! So full of comedy and pathos and tragedy!
Jean had a good night last night, and she is doing as well as in the circumstances can be expected.
Joe, don’t let those people invite me—I couldn’t goⒺexplanatory note. I have canceled all engagements, and shan’t accept another for a year.
There’ll be a full report of that dinner*—issued by ColonelⒶtextual note Harvey as a remembrancer—and of course he will send it to all the guestsⒺexplanatory note. If he should overlook you—which he won’t—let me know.
SoonⒶtextual note my brief visit is due. I’ve just been up, listening at Livy’s door. For the first time in months I heard her break into one of her girlish old-time laughs. With a word I could freeze the blood in her veins!Ⓐtextual note
P.S. 1902.
Dec. 31, 4Ⓐtextual note p.m. A great disappointment. I was sitting outside Livy’s door, waiting. Clara came out a minute ago and said Livy is not so well, and the nurse can’t let me see her to-day. And Clara whispered other things. In the effort to find a new diversionⒶtextual note for Jean, she pretended she hadⒶtextual note sent her down to a matinée in New York this afternoon.Ⓐtextual note Livy was pleased, but at once wanted the name of the play. Clara was aground.Ⓐtextual note She was afraid to name one—in fact couldn’t for the moment think of anyⒶtextual note name. Hesitances won’t do; so she said JeanⒶtextual note hadn’t mentioned the name of it, but was only full of seeing Fay DavisⒺexplanatory note again.
That was satisfactory, and the incident was closed. Then—
“Your father is willing to go with you and Jean to-morrow night?” (To Carnegie Hall.)Ⓐtextual note
“Oh, yes. He is reformed since you are sick; never grumbles about anything he thinks you would like him to do. He’s all alacrity to do the most disagreeable things. You wouldn’t recognize him, now. He’s spoiling himself—getting so vain of himself he—”
And so on and so onⒶtextual note—fighting for time—time to think up material. She had sent back the tickets a week
ago, with a note explaining why
we couldn’t come; the thing had passed out of her mind, and to have it sprung upon
her out of the hoary past in this sudden way
was a perilous matter and called for wariness. (It is my
*My sixty-seventh birthday. M.T.Ⓐtextual note [begin page 106] little juvenile piece “The Death-Wafer,”Ⓔexplanatory note which Livy loves; and longs to hear about it from an eye-witness.)Ⓐtextual note
“Who else is going?”
“Mary FooteⒺexplanatory note and—and Miss Lyon and—and Elizabeth Dodge—and—I think that is all.”
“Why—has Jean invited Elizabeth and not her sister?”Ⓐtextual note
(ClaraⒶtextual note had forgotten there was a sister, and was obliged to explain that she didn’t really remember, but believed Jean had Ⓐtextual note mentioned the sister.)Ⓐtextual note
“Well, to make sure, speak to her about it. But is that all she has invited? It is a great big box, and the management have been very kind. It mustn’t have a thin look.”
And so Livy began to worry.
“Oh, don’t you bother, Mousie. You can depend on Jean to have it full. She mentioned names,Ⓐtextual note but I had the cook on my hands and wasn’t paying attention.”
And at this point, sure enough, I fell heir to my share; for Clara said—
“Day after to-morrow she’ll want to know all about it. I can’t furnish details, they’ve gone out of my head. You must post me thoroughly, to-morrow.”
She had to get back to Livy’s room, then—and perhaps explain what kept her so long.
This is a perplexing place. Livy knows the story, and I don’t. I wrote it threeⒶtextual note years ago, or more. I think I will suggest some such procedure as this—to Clara:
“Generalize—keep generalizing—about the scenery, and the costumes, and how bluff and fine the old Lord Protector was, and how pretty and innocently audacious the child was, and how pathetically bowed and broken the poor parents were, and all that, and how perfectly natural and accurate the Tower of London looked—work the Tower hard, Livy knows the Tower well—work it for all it’s worthⒶtextual note—keep whirling it in—every time you get stuck, say ‘OhⒶtextual note, but the Tower! ah, the Tower!’Ⓐtextual note And keep your ears open—your mother will furnish the details, without knowing it. She’ll mention the child’s climbing up into Cromwell’s lap uninvited—and you must break into the middle of her sentence and say ‘OhⒶtextual note, you should have seen it!’Ⓐtextual note and she’ll say, ‘WhenⒶtextual note the child put the red wafer into her own father’s hand—’Ⓐtextual note you will break in and say, ‘OhⒶtextual note, Mousie, it was too pitiful for anything—you could hear the whole house sob;’Ⓐtextual note and she’ll say, ‘WasⒶtextual note the child equal to her part when she flew to Cromwell and dragged him out and stamped her foot and—’Ⓐtextual note you must break in and say ‘ItⒶtextual note was great! and when he said “Obey! she spoke by my voice; the prisoner is pardoned—set him free!Ⓐtextual note” youⒶtextual note ought to have been Ⓐtextual note there! it was just grand!’ ”*
Mark.
1903.
Jan. 1/03. The doctor did not stay last night. Just as I was beginning to dress for dinner Livy’s nurse came for me, and I saw the patient fourⒶtextual note minutes. She was in great spirits—like twenty-fiveⒶtextual note years ago.
She has sent me a New-Year greeting this morning, and has had a good night.
Jean has had a good night, and does not look to me so blasted and blighted as on the previous days. She sleeps all the time. Temperature down to within a shade of normal, this morning. Everything looking well here (unberufen!Ⓔexplanatory note)Ⓐtextual note
Mark.
*June, 1906. Clara followed the instructions, and succeeded.Ⓐtextual note
Jan. 28.
LivyⒶtextual note had a slight backset yesterday, so the doctor has just told me he is going to shut off my daily visitⒶtextual note for a few days.Ⓐtextual note It will distress her, and may have an ill effect at first;Ⓐtextual note but later,Ⓐtextual note results will show the wisdom of it no doubt.
Katy’s absence at Old Point ComfortⒶtextual note with Jean makes a new difficulty:Ⓐtextual note Livy charges Clara with orders for Katy every day. For months Katy has prepared special dishes for Livy, and now Livy wants her stirred up—she is growing careless in her cooking the past few days and isn’t up to standard! By gracious we can’t counterfeit Katy’s cookery!
Yours ever,Ⓐtextual note
Mark.
Jean is enjoying herself very well at Old Point Comfort. Clara has asked JudyⒺexplanatory note to come up, and we are hoping she will say yes.Ⓐtextual note
The story (“Was it Heaven—or Hell?”)Ⓐtextual note appeared in the Christmas Harper Ⓐtextual note when Jean’s life was hanging by a thread (as we all knew),Ⓐtextual note but while she was taking joyous and active part in the Christmas fêtesⒶtextual note and festivities of the neighborhood (as her mother supposed).Ⓐtextual note The mother inquired into all the festivities with that lively interest which was so characteristic of her. She wanted all the details. She wanted all the names. If it was a young people’s party, or fêteⒶtextual note, or dance, she wanted to know. If it was at William E. Dodge’s house, or if it was at Cleveland Dodge’sⒺexplanatory note, or if it was at George W. Perkins’s houseⒺexplanatory note, she had to have the house, the nature of the entertainment, the names of the participants, and all about it. Clara furnished these particulars; and while her mother’s face beamed with pleasure in the thought of the brave time Jean was having, Clara sat there with her still heart listening—if a heart can listen. She knew that Jean might be dying at that moment.
Italy.
Toward the end of October we carried Mrs. Clemens aboard ship, her excellent nurse, Miss Sherry, accompanying us. We reached Florence on the 9th of November. We conveyed our patient to that odious Villa di Quarto. I have already told a sufficiency of the history of our eight months’ occupancy of that infamous placeⒺexplanatory note. I will not inflict upon myself the useless pain of filling out the remaining months of it.
Mrs. Clemens was doomed from the beginning, but she never suspected it—we never suspected it. She had been ill many times in her life, but her miraculous recuperative powers always brought her out of these perils safely. We were full of fears and anxieties and solicitudes all the time, but I do not think we ever really lost hope. At least, not until the last two or three weeks. It was not like her to lose hope. We never expected her to lose it—and so at last when she looked me pathetically in the eyes and said “You believe I shall get well?” it was a form which she had never used before, and it was a betrayal. Her hope was perishing, and I recognized it.
During five months I had been trying to find another and satisfactory villa, in the belief that if we could get Mrs. Clemens away from the Villa di Quarto and its fiendish [begin page 108] associations, the happier conditions would improve both the health of her spirit and that of her body. I found many villas that had every desired feature save one or two, but the lacking one or two were always essentials—features necessary to the well-being of the invalid. But at last, on Saturday the 4th of June, I heard of a villa which promised to meet all the requirements. Sunday afternoon Jean and I drove to it, examined it, and came home satisfied—more than satisfied, delighted. The purchase price was thirty thousand dollars cash, and we could have possession at once.
We got back homeⒶtextual note at five in the afternoon, and I waited until seven with my news. I was allowed to have fifteen minutes in the sick-roomⒶtextual note two or three times a day—the last of these occasions being seven in the evening—and I was also privileged to step in for a single moment at nine in the evening and say good nightⒶtextual note. At seven that evening I was at the bedside. I described the villa, exhibited its plans, and said we would buy it to-morrowⒶtextual note if she were willing, and move her to it as soon as she could bear the journey. She was pleased. She was satisfied. And her face—snow white, marble white, these latter weeks—was radiant. I overstayed my time fifteen minutes—a strenuously forbidden trespass. As I was passing out at the door which was furthest from her bed,Ⓐtextual note it was borne in upon her that, by rights, I had forfeited my privilege of coming at nine to say good nightⒶtextual note. I think so,Ⓐtextual note because she kissed her hand at me and said “You’ll come again?” I said “Yes.”
I came again at nine. As I entered I saw Katy and the trained nurse, one on each side of Mrs. Clemens, who was sitting up in bed—she had not lain down for two months—and they were apparently supporting her. But she was dead. She must have died as I entered the door. She had been blessedly unaware that her end was near. She had been gaily chatting with Katy and the nurse a moment before I entered the room.
We brought her home. And in the library of her father’s house, and upon the same spot where she had stood,Ⓐtextual note a young girl bride, thirty-five years before, her coffin now rested. Mr. Twichell, who had assisted at her marriage, was there to say the farewell words.
young Dodges] Clara and Jean were friends of the children of Cleveland H. Dodge (see the note at 107.19–20): Elizabeth (b. 1884), Julia (b. 1885), and their twin brothers, Bayard and Cleveland Earl (b. 1888) ( Riverdale Census 1900, 1127:10A).
woman named Tobin] Unidentified.
Old Point Comfort] A spit of land on the Virginia shore of the Chesapeake Bay, known for its health resorts.
Katy] Longtime family servant Katy Leary.
I will here insert the Susy Crane letter] Clemens’s preparations for this dictation go back to Florence in January 1904, when he asked Isabel Lyon to gather materials for a “Chapter which Livy must not see. Send to Susy Crane & Twichell for letters written at that time to be sent to Miss Lyon in my care” (Lyon transcript of SLC notes, CU-MARK). Both letters were obtained, and in 1906 Clemens pasted the manuscript letter to Crane into his dictation typescript; a typed copy of the letter to Twichell was made, and the original returned to him.
York Harbor experience] Susan Crane traveled from Elmira to York Harbor in mid-August 1902 to help nurse Olivia. Clemens wrote her on 15 August, “We try our best to keep hidden the doctor-secrets, but she is sharp, & penetrating, & hunts us through all our shifts & dodges, & worms everything out of us, & then the result makes her low-spirited. She wants you, & she is right” (15 Aug 1902 to Crane, CU-MARK).
Dr. Janeway] Dr. Edward Gamaliel Janeway (1841–1911) was a prominent specialist in nervous diseases and tuberculosis who had attended two presidents—McKinley and Cleveland—and was currently treating Cornelius Vanderbilt for typhoid fever (New York Times: “Mr. Vanderbilt’s Condition,” 24 Dec 1902, 1; “Worst Fears Realized,” 14 Sept 1901, 1; “Cleveland Had His Left Jaw Removed,” 21 Sept 1917, 9; “Dr. E. G. Janeway, Diagnostician, Dead,” 11 Feb 1911, 11).
Mrs. Hapgood’s luncheon] Emilie Bigelow Hapgood (1868–1930), a family friend, was the daughter of a Chicago banker; she married the author Norman Hapgood in 1896 (“Emilie Hapgood Dies of a Stroke,” New York Times, 17 Feb 1930, 17; Manhattan Census 1900, 1115:1A).
Miss Sherry] Margaret Sherry was hired sometime after 23 October 1902, when Margaret Garrety was discharged (see AD, 6 June 1906, note at 99.22). Sherry accompanied the family to Italy in the fall of 1903; when she departed a month later Clemens noted, “We can never forget her, & shall always be grateful to her” (Notebook 46, TS p. 31, CU-MARK).
feeding of the five thousand] 102.23 feeding of the five thousand] Matthew 14:13–21 (also in the other three gospels).
John Howells] John Mead Howells (1868–1959) was the son of William Dean and Elinor Howells. After studying at Harvard and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he founded the architectural firm of Howells and Stokes in New York City. In 1906–8 he designed and supervised the construction of Stormfield (Clemens’s house in Redding, Connecticut), in the style of an Italian villa. In later years he designed public buildings all over the country, including several at Harvard and Yale.
Mark Hambourg] Hambourg (1879–1960) was a Russian pianist who began his career as a child prodigy. After studying with renowned piano teacher Theodor Leschetizky, he made the first of many world tours in 1895. Clara met him in Vienna in the spring of 1898, when she too was a pupil of Leschetizky (it was then that she also met fellow student Ossip Gabrilowitsch, her future husband). Hambourg was currently performing in New York (CC 1938, 1–3; New York Times: “Mendelssohn Hall,” 6 Jan 1903, 10; “Mark Hambourg’s Recital,” 11 Jan 1903, 14).
Letter to Reverend Joseph H. Twichell] See the note at 101.8.
“Was it Heaven? Or Hell?”] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 4 June 1906 and the note at 83.16–17.
I wish Clara . . . could take a pen and put upon paper all the details of one of her afternoons in her mother’s room] On 31 December 1902, the same day that Clemens wrote his letter to Twichell, Clara wrote her friend Dorothea Gilder:
Dear Me! I used to maintain that there was no use in lying because if you arranged the words well, even very well the expression of face still destroyed the possibility of success in deceiving—but I must take back that statement for my whole conversation with my mother is one long string of lies. . . . Jean is out coasting with the Dodges or at a matinee, visit a friend in New York etc. etc. I really get so confused trying to remember that I have been to a lesson in town instead of sitting near Jean’s room all morning that I can’t see why my mother doesn’t detect my many slips & badly mended breaks. So far she has been successfully blinded but I do hope that Jean won’t be long getting well. (TS of catalog, George Robert Minkoff Rare Books, 10 Dec 1998, CU-MARK)
Joe, don’t let those people invite me—I couldn’t go] Twichell had written Clemens from Hartford on 30 December: “If you are coming up here Jan. 21st you can make a speech at the Dinner—in the Foot Guard Armory—of the Sons of the Revolution; or if you prefer at the meeting of the Workingmens’ Club in the Lafayette St Public School Hall. Or perhaps you might do both things. I have been requested to press both honors on your acceptance” (CU-MARK).
full report of that dinner*—issued by Colonel Harvey as a remembrancer . . . to all the guests] George Harvey—president of Harper and Brothers and editor of the North American Review and Harper’s Weekly—hosted a dinner at the Metropolitan Club on 28 November 1902 for over fifty guests in celebration of Clemens’s sixty-seventh birthday (for Harvey see AutoMT1 , 557 n. 267.35). No “remembrancer” has been found, but Harper’s Weekly printed the following poems read at the dinner: “A Double-Barrelled Sonnet to Mark Twain,” by Howells; “Mark Twain (A Post-prandial Obituary),” by humorist John Kendrick Bangs (1862–1922); and “A Toast to Mark Twain!” by Henry van Dyke (Harper’s Weekly 46 [13 Dec 1902]: 1943–44). Clemens also made a brief speech, in which he mentioned Twichell, saying in part:
Another of my oldest friends is here—the Rev. Joe Twichell—and whenever Twichell goes to start a church I see them flocking, rushing to buy the land all around there. Many and many a time I have attended the annual sale in his church, and bought up all the pews on a margin and it would have been better for me spiritually and financially if I had staid under his wing. I try to serve him, I have tried to do good in this world, and it is marvelous in how many ways I have done good. (“When Twain Got His Say,” New York Times, 30 Nov 1902, 10)
Fay Davis] In November 1902 Davis made a successful New York debut in the comedy Imprudence, by H. V. Esmond (“The Theatres Last Night,” New York Times, 18 Nov 1902, 9; see AD, 5 Apr 1906, note at 18.36–19.3).
“The Death-Wafer,”] Early in 1902 Clemens’s dramatization of his story “The Death-Disk” was staged at Carnegie Hall by the Children’s Theatre (“News of the Theatres,” New York Times, 7 Feb 1902, 6). For a description of the story see the Autobiographical Dictation of 30 August 1906, note at 197.40–198.8.
Mary Foote] Mary Hubbard Foote (1872–1968) was a cousin of the Clemens girls’ former governess, Lilly Gillette Foote (see AutoMT1 , 579 n. 326.13–21). Orphaned at age thirteen, she was raised by an aunt in Hartford and became an especially close friend of Susy’s. In 1890 she enrolled in the Yale School of the Fine Arts, and then continued her studies in Paris. In 1901 she returned to New York, established her own studio in Washington Square, and found success as a portraitist. In the 1920s she began to withdraw from art and social life, moving permanently to Switzerland to be treated by Carl Jung, who convinced her to stop painting professionally (Fahlman 1991, 19–20; “Nook Farm Genealogy” 1974, Foote Addenda, vi).
unberufen!] Clemens frequently used this superstitious German interjection. In his own words: “If a German forgets himself & suddenly lets slip a strong desire, he immediately protects himself by exclaiming ‘Unberufen!’—otherwise, the evil spirits, having discovered the desire of his heart, would set themselves at work, right away, and smash it” (30 Aug 1881 to Norton, MH-H).
Judy] Julia Curtis Twichell (1869–1945), Joseph Twichell’s oldest daughter, was called “Judy” by her family. She had been married to Howard Ogden Wood since 1892 (Twichell to SLC, 2 Feb 1892, CU-MARK; “Wood-Twichell,” New York Times, 27 Apr 1892, 5).
William E. Dodge’s house, or . . . at Cleveland Dodge’s] William E. Dodge and his son, philanthropist and financier Cleveland H. Dodge (1860–1926), both owned estates in Riverdale. Their wealth derived from the family business, founded by William’s father (of the same name), which dealt in metals (“Dodge Family Gets $20,000,000 Estate,” New York Times, 28 July 1926, 21; Riverdale Census 1900, 1127:10A; Social Register 1902, 100; see AutoMT1 , 558 n. 269.24–26).
George W. Perkins’s house] Perkins (1862–1920), a partner in J. P. Morgan and Company and vice-president of the New York Life Insurance Company, was another Riverdale neighbor. In mid-1903 he bought the house the Clemenses were leasing; by then it was owned by Frank A. Munsey, who had purchased it in April 1902 from Appleton’s heirs. In recent years Perkins had become one of the most important financiers on Wall Street, and was now purchasing contiguous properties on the Hudson River to create a large estate (“Perkins the Wonder,” Los Angeles Times, 10 May 1903, B4; 30 June 1903 to Perkins, NRivd2; “Literary and Trade Notes,” Publishers’ Weekly, 26 Apr 1902, 1014; Wave Hill 2011).
Source documents.
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 847–60, [1]–14, 860a, 861–65 (altered in pencil to 856–89), made from Hobby’s notes and SLC to Twichell and revised.SLC to Crane MS letter, SLC to Susan Crane, 29 and 30 December 1902, attached to TS1: ‘Clara’s Day . . . SLC’ (101.9–103.25).
SLC to Twichell MS letter, SLC to Joseph H. Twichell, 31 December 1902 and 1 and 28 January 1903, CtY-BR: ‘Riverdale-on-the-Hudson . . . say yes.’ (103.31–107.13).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 1001–18, made from the revised TS1 with the attached SLC to Crane and further revised in pencil and ink.
Clemens’s preparations for this dictation go back to Florence in January 1904, at which time he asked Lyon to gather materials for a “Chapter which Livy must not see. Send to Susy Crane & Twichell for letters written at that time to be sent to Miss Lyon in my care” (Lyon transcript of SLC notes, CU-MARK).
The letter by Twichell (103.31–107.13) appears in TS1 in the form of Hobby’s typed transcript, inserted between page 860 and 860a, with leaves numbered [1]–14, altered by Hobby in pencil to 870–83. Twichell evidently provided Clemens with the original letter, which Hobby copied closely (with a few slips). Clemens must have returned the letter to Twichell, for it is now in the Beinecke Library at Yale University (CtY-BR). We base our text on a facsimile of the MS, incorporating Clemens’s TS1 revisions.
The original manuscript of the letter to Crane, which has been folded for mailing, is pasted into TS1.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions into TS2, which was further revised but not published in NAR. Two penciled corrections on TS2 have been ascribed to her. The other revisions on TS2, in both pencil and ink, appear to be Clemens’s; those in pencil are identified in the list below.