Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt: ...I think of her and you. It is an unspeakable pity that you should be without any one to go about with the girls, & it troubles me, & grieves me, & makes me curse & swear; but you see, dear heart, I've got to stick right where I am till I find out whether we are rich or whether the poorest person we are acquainted with in anybody's kitchen is better off than we are. . I stand on the land-end of a springboard, with the family clustered on the other end; if I take my foot-- He realized his hopes to her as a vessel trying to make port; once he wrote: The ship is in sight now .... When the anchor is down then I shall say: "Farewell-a long farewell-to business! I will never touch it again!" I will live in literature, I will wallow in it, revel in it; I will swim in ink! 'Joan of Arc'-but all this is premature; the anchor is not down yet. Sometimes he sent her impulsive cables calculating to sustain hope. Mrs. Clemens, writing to her sister in January, said: Mr. Clemens now for ten days has been hourly expecting to send me word that Paige had signed the (new) contract, but as yet no despatch comes . . . . On the 5th of this month I received a cable, "Expect good news in ten days." On the 15th I receive a cable, "Look out for good news." On the 19th a cable, "Nearing success." It appealed to her sense of humor even in these dark days. She added: They make me laugh, for they are so like my beloved "Colonel." Mr. Rogers had agreed that he would bring Paige to rational terms, and with Clemens made a trip to Chicago. All agreed now that the machine promised a certain fortune as soon as a contract acceptable to everybody could be concluded-Paige and his lawyer being the last to dally and dicker as to terms. Finally a telegram came from Chicago saying that Paige had agreed to terms. On that day Clemens wrote in his note-book: This is a great date in my history. Yesterday we were paupers with but 3 months' rations of cash left..."