time, and Sunday is the only day that brings unbearable leisure.  I hope you will be in New York another winter; then I shall know what to do with these foretastes of eternity.”

Clemens usually wrote at considerable length, for he had a good deal
to report of his life in the Austrian capital, now drawing to a
close.

To W. D. Howells, in New York: 

May 12, 1899.  Dear Howells,—­7.15 p. m.  Tea (for Mr. and Mrs. Tower, who are leaving for Russia) just over; nice people and rather creditable to the human race:  Mr. and Mrs. Tower; the new Minister and his wife; the Secretary of Legation; the Naval (and Military) Attach; several English ladies; an Irish lady; a Scotch lady; a particularly nice young Austrian baron who wasn’t invited but came and went supposing it was the usual thing and wondered at the unusually large gathering; two other Austrians and several Americans who were also in his fix; the old Baronin Langeman, the only Austrian invited; the rest were Americans.  It made just a comfortable crowd in our parlor, with an overflow into Clara’s through the folding doors.  I don’t enjoy teas, and am daily spared them by Mrs. Clemens, but this was a pleasant one.  I had only one accident.  The old Baronin Langeman is a person I have a strong fondness for, for we violently disagree on some subjects and as violently agree on others —­for instance, she is temperance and I am not:  she has religious beliefs and feelings and I have none; (she’s a Methodist!) she is a democrat and so am I; she is woman’s rights and so am I; she is laborers’ rights and approves trades unions and strikes, and that is me.  And so on.  After she was gone an English lady whom I greatly like, began to talk sharply against her for contributing money, time, labor, and public expression of favor to a strike that is on (for an 11-hour day) in the silk factories of Bohemia—­and she caught me unprepared and betrayed me into over-warm argument.  I am sorry:  for she didn’t know anything about the subject, and I did; and one should be gentle with the ignorant, for they are the chosen of God.

(The new Minister is a good man, but out of place.  The Sec. of Legation is a good man, but out of place.  The Attache is a good man, but out of place.  Our government for displacement beats the new White Star ship; and her possible is 17,200 tons.)

May 13, 4 p. m.  A beautiful English girl and her handsome English husband came up and spent the evening, and she certainly is a bird.  English parents—­she was born and reared in Roumania and couldn’t talk English till she was 8 or 10.  She came up clothed like the sunset, and was a delight to look at. (Roumanian costume.).....