So the personal side of religious discussion closed between them, and was never afterward reopened.

They joined Mrs. Clemens and the others at Lausanne at last, and their Swiss holiday was over.  Twichell set out for home by way of England, and Clemens gave himself up to reflection and rest after his wanderings.  Then, as the days of their companionship passed in review, quickly and characteristically he sent a letter after his comrade: 

Dear old Joe, It is actually all over!  I was so low-spirited at the station yesterday, and this morning, when I woke, I couldn’t seem to accept the dismal truth that you were really gone, and the pleasant tramping and talking at an end.  Ah, my boy! it has been such a rich holiday to me, and I feel under such deep and honest obligations to you for coming.  I am putting out of my mind all memory of the times when I misbehaved toward you and hurt you; I am resolved to consider it forgiven, and to store up and remember only the charming hours of the journeys and the times when I was not unworthy to be with you and share a companionship which to me stands first after Livy’s.  It is justifiable to do this; for why should I let my small infirmities of disposition live and grovel among my mental pictures of the eternal sublimities of the Alps?

    Livy can’t accept or endure the fact that you are gone.  But you
    are, and we cannot get around it.  So take our love with you, and
    bear it also over the sea to Harmony, and God bless you both.

Mark.

CXIX

ITALIAN DAYS

The Clemens party wandered down into Italy—­to the lakes, Venice, Florence, Rome—­loitering through the galleries, gathering here and there beautiful furnishings—­pictures, marbles, and the like—­for the Hartford home.

In Venice they bought an old careen bed, a massive regal affair with serpentine columns surmounted by singularly graceful cupids, and with other cupids sporting on the headboard:  the work of some artist who had been dust three centuries maybe, for this bed had come out of an old Venetian palace, dismantled and abandoned.  It was a furniture with a long story, and the years would add mightily to its memories.  It would become a stately institution in the Clemens household.  The cupids on the posts were removable, and one of the highest privileges of childhood would be to occupy that bed and have down one of the cupids to play with.  It was necessary to be ill to acquire that privilege—­not violently and dangerously ill, but interestingly so—­ill enough to be propped up with pillows and have one’s meals served on a tray, with dolls and picture-books handy, and among them a beautiful rosewood cupid who had kept dimpled and dainty for so many, many years.

They spent three weeks in Venice:  a dreamlike experience, especially for the children, who were on the water most of the time, and became fast friends with their gondolier, who taught them some Italian words; then a week in Florence and a fortnight in Rome.