To William Dean Howells
20 June 1882 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS, typewritten, with holograph changes: MH-H, UCCL 02221)
hartford conn. june 20th. 1882.
my dear howells:
after infinite labor and fatigue, mrs. clemens has got her menagerie ready to move, but now we are brought to a halt by jean’s illness. she has had hoarseness and a pretty sick time of it in one way or another, during the past four or five days, and now a rash has broken out on her which the doctor is not willing to say is not scarlet fever. so we shall stay still and wait a day or two, and then go or stay according to results.
if you would like to have $3000.00. on account, i will send it with pleasure. i mention this because osgood was here last night and [saiys] he thought you wanted to finish paying for your house before you sailed for europe. if the money will be a convenience to you, all right; it will be no inconvenience to me to pay [it.
i] not only had a [prodigious‸ly‸] good time at your house, but as usual i brought away some material results. i wrote an article for the tile club, which would never have been written if i had not gone to belmont. i always make expenses, and a hundred dollars or so besides out of a visit to you.
yours as ever,
mark.
Textual Commentary
Source text(s):Previous publication:
MTHL, 1:406-7.
Provenance:
See Howells Letters in Description of Provenance.
Emendations and textual notes:
saiys • [correction handwritten]
it. [¶] i • [space added to indicate new unindented paragraph; no extra space between paragraphs in MS, here and hereafter]
prodigious‸ly‸ • [insertion handwritten]
