The private knowledge of this fact has saved me from going to pieces with enthusiasm in front of many and many a chromo. The gentlemen-in-waiting stare to see me sit here telegraphing thisletter to you, and no doubt they are smiling in their sleeves. Just what kindledMark Twain's interest in the poetry of Robert Browning is not remembered,but very likely his earlier associations with the poet had something todo with it. He had in reality changed little; for ageneration he had thought the sort of things which he now, with advancedyears and a different audience, felt warranted in uttering openly.
I would just like to see Howells get down to his work & explain & lie & work his futile & inventionless subterfuges when that Princess comes raging in here & wanting to know. bless you for every beautiful thought you poured into my tired heart, and for every smile on a weary way. That was a profoundtruth, though not as he intended it. It was that evening or the next, perhaps, that he said to her: Ben [one of his pet names for her], now that you are here to run theranch, Paine and I are going to Washington on a vacation.
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