Friday Eveg.
‸midnight.‸
1
My Dear Lee—
It was just like me. I wrote Sir Cordy Burrows2 last Sunday that Miss Spaulding wouldn’t be able to go again to Brighton, her sight-seeing time being so circumscribed, & therefore my wife couldn’t go because she would [be left ]forlorn & dreary in that Brighton hotel so long—consequently I would have to lose the pleasure of going myself, under the circumstances, & remain here & help the ladies do other [sight-seeing ]. Then I said to [myself ], I will write Lee also—but I suppose I forgot it. No—now I remember, I didn’t forget [it. I ]argued that I would see you several times during the week & would tell you.
Don’t you be offended, old friend, for I didn’t mean to forget, & I’ve been moving night & day since I saw you. I want Mrs. Clemens to see the aquarium, & I mean that she shall see it, but I must not let her visit there be spoiled by a dreary & lonely interval in a hotel. So we want to go down some time when you are going & when I won’t have to leave her lying around loose at all.3
When can you go to Hampton Court?4 We have had a day or two open, but Mrs. Clemens & Miss Spaulding have both said pretty emphatically that they particularly wish to go when you can go & they are very ready to wait till you have leisure. So I have said, “All right, if you are more satisfied fascinated with that venerable naturalist than you are with the subscriber, I am willing to wait, too, because I find his company rather pleasant myself.” Miss Spaulding said, several times, coming home, “I do think so much of Mr. Lee.” I don’t think you ever showed kindnesses to any lady that more heartily & gratefully appreciated them than she did.
Yrs Warmly
Samℓ. L. Clemens.
Midnight [ ‸ F ‸ ]—Your note just arrived—sent you a telegram at once to say I had written Sir Cordy last week.5 ‸ Saturday ‸ I dine at the Savage [to–‸morrow‸ night ]with Joaquin Miller—wish you could be there.6
Henry Lee Esq | 43 Holland st, Blackfriars Road | London, S.E. [in upper left corner:] Personal [postmarked:] London • w 6 ju13 73 [and] [London • se]lv ju13 73 7
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Source text(s):
Previous publication:
L5, 380–381.
Emendations and textual notes:
be left • bel left [false start; first ‘l’ partly formed]
sight-seeing • sight-|seeing
myself • mysee lf
it. I • it..— I
‸ F ‸ • [partly formed]
to-‸morrow‸ night • [originally ‘to-night’]
london • se • london • s [] [badly inked]