To Olivia L. Clemens
20 November 1873 • London, England
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00984)

Parlor 113
Langham Hotel
London, Nov. 19. 20

Livy darling, it is close upon half past 9, now, the breakfast is on the table getting cold, & still you & Clara1 do not come. The Modoc amused me for a while with a distant sound, down the hall, of uncertain [footsteps] & “abundance of “Tah-tah’s” for benefits conferred by somebody out there—but she is gone, now, & I have nothing now but the mor Times, with Mr. ‸Lord Rector‸ [Disraeli’s] speech in it.2 I am not particularly hungry, but what I mind is the delay, & the lonesomeness of waiting. As far up Portland Place as I can see, the glittering Horse-Guards are filing in stately procession; out here on Langham Place that old “semi-detached” tooth-pick of a steeple stands up just as sharp & a ugly as ever;3 that same beadle is behind a pillar “laying” for a tramp who has half a mind to venture inside the iron railings; that same one-legged crossing-sweeper is coming around the circle of the railings, & is humping himself too, to help a lady into a Hansom; that very same Punch & Judy man has arrived with a tap or two of his drum, a toot or two of his pipes & a [ will wild], shrill remark from Punch himself;—& the show is moving on again, the man taking off his hat humbly & beseechingly to people in various Langham Hotel windows—to no purpose. These sights are things that you & Clara always liked, heretofore, but now you do not care for come. Well, I will breakfast alone, then. Bacon, coffee & poached eggs are hardly worth sharing, anyhow.

But I love you my sweetheart & would give a great deal to divide these refreshments with you & have your company.

Samℓ.

Mrs Samℓ. L. Clemens | Forest street | Hartford | Conn. [in upper left corner:] America. | [flourish] [postmarked:] [london-w] zb no20 73 [and] li [and] [new york dec paid all]

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Spaulding.

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2 The renowned Conservative statesman and novelist Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) was installed as Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow on 19 November. After the ceremony he gave a speech, reported in the London Times the next day, in which he asserted that two kinds of knowledge were important for success in life: an accurate understanding of one’s own character and abilities, and a comprehension of the “spirit of the age” in which those abilities would be exercised (“Mr. Disraeli at Glasgow University,” 20 Nov 73, 10).

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3 All Souls Church in Langham Place, designed by John Nash and built in 1822–24, featured a “combination of a Greek peristyle and a spire,” which was “ridiculed at the time and the portly Nash was caricatured as impaled upon it,” in a drawing by Cruikshank (Weinreb and Hibbert, 19–20).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).

Previous publication: L5, 478–479; LLMT, 184.

Provenance:see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

footsteps • foot-|steps

Disraeli’s • Disraelsi’s

will wild • willd

london-w • londo[-]w [badly inked]

new york dec paid all • [ne ok ] c [] paid [] [badly inked]