Part 10 (2/2)

All the same, she didn't want anyone to think that Ossip had won her hand by ta her independent spirit She told Twichell, ”There is one great favor I have to ask of you-just one-e vows” He agreed, but after getting to know Ossip a little, he couldn't see why Clara was concerned that he ht try to dominate her As far as Twichell could tell, the pianist was a har After the wedding he described hi n in reat rush Clara went to Alt dress, and also purchased a dress for her bridesmaid, Jean Her Elreed to serve as Ossip's best man The pianist Ethel Newcomb-who had studied with Clara and Ossip in Vienna under Leschetizky-was asked to play the weddingfields for colorful wildflowers and autu roo was to take place Besides the iuests were invited

At the wedding rehearsal on October 5, Twain seehter who had only recently moved back home When his presence was requested at the rehearsal in the living roo billiards and didn't want to be interrupted for the purpose of h the ood friend the violinist Marie Nichols caah Nichols tried As it happened, he had donned his Oxford garb earlier in the day, thinking he would try it out as part of his wedding outfit, and when Nichols wouldn't leave hi unexpected ”He put the mortar board on my head and the robe over o in and take his place”8 The next day, however, during the real cereave the bride aithout incident, and then posed for pictures wearing his cap and gown In a photograph taken outside, Clara looks happy but unco dress, and Ossip's thin frame shows the effects of his recent illness Pale, with short hair and pinched features, he bears little reseer, more flamboyant self, when he had a full head of dark curls and a fresh, boyish expression

Twain appears to be scowling at the carapher asked him to pose No doubt he was unsettled by the speed hich Clara went frohter's decision When Elizabeth Wallace wrote to get his reaction to the e, he replied that he approved of it ”Happily it is congratulations, not condolences We have known Gabrilowitsch intio-twice Broken both tiret Gab is a very fine hu in every way” Because he liked and respected Wallace, and enjoyed giving her his unvarnished opinions of the Ashcrofts, it is unlikely that he would have shared with her his praise of Ossip if he didn't mean it9

THE NEWLYWEDS HONEYMOONED in Atlantic City, but their plan to go abroad on October 16 ran into trouble when Gabrilowitsch faced anotherin the seaside resort, he began having pains in his side and was advised by doctors that he needed an appendectoh to return to New York, and an operation was scheduled for October 18 at a private hospital Despite his weak condition, he went to the pier on the 16th to cancel his passage on the liner that he and Clara were supposed to have taken to Germany To his surprise, he was approached by a couple of reporters anted an interview

It wasn't his latest illness that interested them What they wanted was his reaction to the recent ru Mrs Charles E Wark was intending to bring a suit against Clara for alienation of affection Some of the New York newspapers had received an anony made to serve Mrs Gabrilowitsch, the former Miss Clemens, with papers in an alienation suit” What did Mr Gabrilowitsch know about this suit? asked the reporters

Ossip did his best to give a dignified reply ”My wife and I are at a loss to knohat it all ainst her, nor is she engaged in any other litigation Mr Wark is a personal friend of both of us, and I a to do with it” Ossip was careful not even to acknowledge the existence of a Mrs Wark, and dismissed the anonymous letter as a lie circulated out of ” that there was more to the story, a reporter telephoned Storet Jean rather than Twain She didn'texactly as responsible for the rumor The culprits, she declared, were the Ashcrofts Isabel, she explained, ”still felt revengeful as a result of the recent litigation between her and Mark Twain”

This coht a forceful denial from Ralph Ashcroft, who insisted ”that neither he nor his wife had anything to do with the circulation of the rumors of Mrs Wark's suit”10 There is no evidence that Wark's wife ever intended to file such a suit As Jean indicated, it was one last effort by the Ashcrofts to embarrass Twain and his family For Ossip and Clara, however, it was the worst possible ti over their heads He was ill and was going to have a serious operation in just two days ”Once more a hospital and days of misery,” Clara was to recall of this period They ht end in death and scandal before they were given a proper chance to ain Ossip survived a close call and was soon able to recover his health In early Noveh to return to Atlantic City with Clara and to resuave a few ”inforh-Blenheim Meanwhile, the European concerts that he had wanted so much to play were canceled or postponed It wasn't until the end of Novee to Europe and sailed away to start a new life11 Before Ossip's appendectoer and ery, but see a personal letter fro the situation ”I as,” he told Johnston, ”but you see how they come about, and that neither you nor I could have helped it”12 Privately, Tas relieved that Clara'sIt wasn't that he begrudged her a career He never failed to show her support But he knew that her talent was limited, and that there were better ways to spend one's life than traveling froht applaud or sit in silence After her e-permanently, I prayI had a 'career' on the platform I could not learn to like it”13 In so made it easier for Clara to conduct her affair with her accoh her father could speak freely to her on many subjects, it is unlikely they ever had a frank discussion about Charles Wark Yet it does seen to under Twain's syrapher recalled, Twain spent e writing a neork titled ”Letters fro sections includes a brutal analysis of male hypocrisy on the question of female adultery

In sexual matters, Twain says in one of the ”Letters,” women are ”competent As competent as the candlestick is to receive the candle CohtBut man is only briefly competentAfter 50 his performance is of poor quality, the intervals between are wide, and its satisfactions of no great value to either party; whereas his great-grandood as new”

By the laws of nature, Twain contends, a woman should be allowed not e of unlimited adultery” The problee the obvious and sanction this privilege ”Does she live in the free enjoyment of it? No Nowhere in the whole world She is robbed of it everywhere Who does this? Man”

In a welcome moment of comic relief Twain illustrates the proper exercise of the wo the case of ”a buxom royal princess” in the Sandwich Islands whose funeral was attended by her hare native men” As he explains, the princess had often boasted ”that she kept the whole of them busy, and that several times it had happened that e overtime”14 Like , Twain kneould be a long ti to print his ”Letters from the Earth” The only person he allowed to see the manuscript was Paine, but he did threaten to read selected parts of it to Elizabeth Wallace ”This book will never be published,” he told her; ”in fact, it couldn't be, because it would be a felonyPaine enjoys it, but Paine is going to be damned one of these days, I suppose”15 Except for the comments on adultery, and a few sieneral, ”Letters froht have provoked a prosecution for obscenity Most of the tiainst his favorite exaious hypocrisy But it is worth noting that no one tried to publish the work until 1939, when Harper & Brothers decided it was safe to issue a collection of Twain's ”uncensored writings”-including ”Letters from the Earth”

At the last minute, however, the project was killed, and the person responsible wasn't a nervous executive or moral crusader It was Clara, who ”objected to the publication of certain parts of it on the ground that they presented a distorted view of her father's ideas and attitudes” There was nothing distorted in the work It isquestions about her father's controversial views of adultery It must have been a sensitive subject for her because she continued for another twenty years to block publication It was only shortly before her death that she changed her mind and allowed the work to appear The whole collection came out in 1962 under the title Letters fros, by which tiotten16

AT SOME POINT in the autumn Harper's Bazaar asked Twain to write a short essay on ”the turning point of my life” He didn't like the premise because he didn't believe that anyone's life had just one ”turning point” As he saw it, there was ”a very long chain of turning points” in each person's history, and no link in this intricate chainback over the events of his early life, he saw five or six crucial links-or turning points-starting with the day his abond life as a young printer led to adventures along the great ays of the A a stea the early days of the Civil War, he went farther west and caught ”the silver fever” in Nevada When he didn't strike it rich, he traded a miner's shovel for a journalist's pen and made a name for himself in the West, which inspired him to try his luck as an author back East

He believed that he had stu his temperament to react to circu a clear plan and sticking to it Soood choice, at other times a bad one ”Circumstance furnished the capital, and my temperament told me what to do with it Sometimes my temperament is an ass”

The main trouble, he was convinced, is that ”by tes Does them, and reflects afterwardsI have been punished s first and reflecting afterwardWhen I a, on those occasions, even deaf persons can hear h he couldn't say it to the readers of Harper's Bazaar, the circu to wait on his that he now had lots of time to think about And, as Paine could have attested, Tas doing so that autues now and then, re so himself, rather inclusively, as an idiot, he said: 'I wish to God the lightning would strike ot anything out of it yet'”

All this violent reflecting only made his chest pains worse After he had written the first part of his Harper's Bazaar essay, he started to read it one night to Jean and Paine, but was forced to stop Clutching his chest, he said, ”I must lie down,” and Paine helped hiave him hot water, and Jean caht He see and couldn't speak

”We sat there several moments in silence,” Paine reht not be the end”

But the trouble passed, and soon he was feeling so ame of billiards

On another occasion, when Jean ca to see him, he waved her aith the words ”Jean, I can't see her Tell her I am likely to drop dead any ”18 After years of being treated like an invalid, Jean now found herself in the strange position of having to look after her father It wasn't easy He was often grumpy, wouldn't follow his doctor's orders, and would ood and generous,” Jean wrote her friend Marguerite Sch e his mind!!”

If he opened a letter and didn't think it orth answering, he would wad it up and throw it away But Jean would rescue it froht that ”all letters deserved the courtesy of an answer” Twain forgave her, reht her up in that kindly error”19 As the weather grew colder, he went outside less often, but would often stand at one of the s and admire ”the autumn splendors,” with their ”cozy, soft colors,” and ”the far hills sleeping in a dih he was content to spend the winter at Stormfield, Dr Quintard orried that any bout with the flu or an attack of bronchitis ravate his heart He advised a trip to a waro20 This tiht he could e of Stormfield with only the servants to keep an eye on her He may also have felt that Bermuda now held too reat deal of time in the co holiday with Rogers, whose death still weighed on his ot to make a trip, by the doctor's orders,” he wrote Dorothy Quick He told her that he preferred to stay home, ”but I ed the voyage and agreed to accompany him Tasn't sure when they would return ”Perhaps we shall be back by the oodbye to Jean, who see his absence On Saturday, Nove in Hamilton on Monday

THEY WERE MET at the dock by Marion Allen, the elfish Helen, and she invited Twain to stay in the guest rooalow, Bay House He was happy to accept, and didn't regret passing up the chance to stay with Paine in one of the island's big hotels

Pleased to have hihter did everything they could to rateful & contented guest,” he observed, ”You can't make a home out of a hotel, & I can't be completely satisfied outside of a home”22 He joked that he had co celebrations, but Marion soon realized that he had coain work its ic on his health Over the next feeeks he did seee for the better was soon apparent to Paine, who visited hi after their arrival on the island he noted that Twain ”was looking wonderfully well after a night of sound sleep, his face full of color and freshness, his eyes bright and keen”23 Writing to Clara at the end of his first week, Twain said, ”Everything-weather included-is in perfection here now Paine & I drive in a light victoria about 3 hours every day, over the sreens & purples of the sea always in sight” In a letter to Frances Nunnally, he claimed that the ocean breezes and the calm atmosphere had driven ”the dyspeptic pain in hts about Miss Lyon & Ashcroft, that pair of professional traitors & forgers”24 On November 30 he celebrated his seventy-fourth birthday with a quiet cere, so he sat by the fire and played cards and told stories While he was spinning soet the Lord's ht in the et” After dinner, the Allens gave hi the the family for their hospitality, Twain ordered from Harper's a set of his works in the Author's National Edition, and inscribed all but four volumes for Helen In her copy of The Prince and the Pauper, he wrote, ”Up to 18 we don't know Happiness consists in not knowing” When Marion noticed that he had not written anything in a few of the books, he explained that it was ”so he would have to cos when he visited places he didn't want to leave In the days when he used to spend the sus” According to Paine, ”He had an old superstition that to leave some article insured return”26 The Allens definitely wanted hiuest,” Marion recalled, ”enjoying everything, anddone for his pleasure” It helped that she was an unco hostess She didn't mind that he liked to smoke in bed, and that he would usually stay there until noon, littering the sheets with pipe tobacco,paper, and some of his favorite books-Thomas Carlyle's French Revolution, Saown and slippers, he would sometimes wander outside for a stroll on the lawn, oblivious to the way he looked Marion wondered what the neighbors thought of the spectacle, but never said anything to hi under her roof, she ca in her She liked his funny stories and appreciated his endless curiosity In her vieas essentially a siood nature, and she believed that ”all that was mean and small in others came as a surprise to him” One day he told her that he had always ”craved affection, but found it very hard to express this feeling”

While Helen ay at school during the day, he and Marion would often have long conversations, and one of their favorite topics was the history of the island He was especially intrigued by the possibility that Shakespeare's The Teht have been inspired by tales of sailors shi+pwrecked on Bermuda, which the play calls ”the still-vex'd Ber-who knew the island well and was convinced of the play's debt to reports fro ”a certain beach soe set for Act II Scene 2 of The Teh the scrub at the land's edge, a gap in the reefs wide enough for the passage of Stephano's butt of sack, and (these eyes have seen it) a cave in the coral within easy reach of the tide, whereto such a butt ht be conveniently rolled ('My cellar is in a rock by the seaside where my wine is hid') There is no other cave for soe”27 Tould quiz Marion on the subject, checking her knowledge of local legends and culture for connections to the play When she speculated on the various ways that Shakespeare ht have picked up information on Bermuda in London, he was quick to correct her casual use of the na that she must have meant to say ”the man rote the Shakespeare plays” It was her opinion that ”Caliban, with his gruntings and groanings, was probably suggested by the wild hogs which were the only sign of animal life on the island” As for Ariel, it htly flitted about, was probably suggested by the alestion, he found more information on the subject in J H Lefroy's two-volume Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands 1511-1687, and this roup of books kept on or near his bed28 At peace in this home away from home, Twain paid little attention to news from the outside world In early December he wrote Clara, ”Never insense of being severed froes all swept away”29

AT STORMFIELD, Jean was enjoying her independence and her new authority as head of her father's house in his absence She was a good ently whenever proble loudly after everyone had gone to sleep, Claude went downstairs to investigate with Jean's Ger would chase away any burglars, Claude tried giving him commands in some of the German phrases he had heard Jean use But he mixed the dich!” (Lie down!), and the dog obediently stretched himself on the floor As Twain later explained in his version of the story, which was based on an account his daughter sent hiht clothes, & shouted 'Los!' (Go! fly! rush!+) & the dog sped away like the wind, tearing the silences to tatters with his bark”30 Though her father wasn't eager to leave Berreed He kne much the holidayplans, ift list with fifty names on it She and Katy Leary-who had decided to ree-went on frequent shopping expeditions, co a world globe for her father The house was decorated with greenery, and in the loggia she and Katy put up a large Christmas tree with bits of silver foil on the branches

On Monday, December 20, Jean was at the pier to welcoloomy, bitterly cold day, and after a month in Bermuda, the nasty weather was a shock to his syste hi of waiting reporters, ”that pain in the breast left ain”31 The reporters tried to cheer hi he would deliver some fresh examples of his quotable humor, but they didn't have , ”He was not in the jovial mood so apparent on his return from the Berers Whenever Mr Cle humorous up his sleeve to drop casually when an intervieas under way It was different yesterday The reporters clutched at straws to bring forth some droll remark”32 The newspaper accounts of his return were so uniforlum that Jean worried about the effect of such stories on Clara, ould probably see the that their father's health was so bad he ed hie to the associated Press To huave it to the wire service over the telephone: ”I hear the newspapers say I a at ood as I can Merry Christmas to everybody! Mark Twain”33 Anxious to et everything ready She wrapped gifts, es, checked menus, did her usual chores at the far a peek at the Christht before Christ froht to bed, but spent an hour downstairs talking with her father, anted to discuss his plan for returning to Berain, he asked, if he went back in February and stayed a ested that if he waited until March, they could go together Thrilled that she wanted to co excitedly of finding a house for their stay on the island

With Jean's dog trailing behind, they went upstairs for bed and said good night at his door Because of her cold, she didn't want to give him a kiss, so he bent and kissed her hand As he later wrote, ”She was moved-I saw it in her eyes-& she iay 'Sleep well, dear!' froer to ride to the post office and mail the last of her Christmas cards As usual she was up early, and at seven she lowered herself into the tub for a quick bath The water was cold, but that was the way she liked it One of the maids was nearby, and beca from the bathroom for a while

The maid called out to Katy, ”Miss Jean is still in the tub You'd better go in there, Katy”

Alar motionless in the tub When she tried to lift her up, Jean's head fell against her shoulder, and she knew then that the worst had happened

”Oh, come! Come! Miss Jean is dead,” Katy cried35 With the e towel spread across the floor They tried to revive her, but there was no sign of life Covering her with a sheet, Katy gave orders for the other servants to bring the nearest doctor, who lived a few miles away, and then she ran down the hall to Twain's roouished account of the tragedy, ”stood quaking & gasping at ue: 'Miss Jean is dead!'”

Trote, ”Possibly I knohat the soldier feels when a bullet crashes through his heart”

He rose from bed and made his way to her roo creature, stretched upon the floor & covered with a sheet And looking so placid, so natural, & as if asleep”36 The local doctor thought at first that she had drowned as a result of losing consciousness during a seizure, but then it was decided that the seizure had caused her heart to fail, and drowning was ruled out In any case she was always at risk of being seriously hurt or killed in the aftermath of a severe attack Without soilant, she was never truly safe, and if she had escaped death in her bath one day, sheon her far As Clara later said of her sister, ”She chafed at the chains in her life which could not be entirely removed”37 If Dr Peterson had not been ht have had better success persuading Jean to accept her li endured thefrom place to place without a chance to see her own home, she relished her new freedoy came out like a shot and led her in many directions at once As a result, she pushed herself in ways that would have been discouraged at a sanitarium or even in her own home under the supervision of qualified attendants No doubt this overexertion contributed to her death

But no ht have done to protect her or to improve the quality of her life, he couldn't havethat, he found soht that she had finally been released fro ordeal ”Now that dear sweet spirit is at rest,” he wrote Twichell38 As soon as he heard the news, Paine ca father and to stare in disbelief at Jean's lifeless body after Katy had dressed her He had seen her at Storht before, and was now shocked to think that the vibrant young wooodbye to hier alive While he sat quietly with Twain, Katy telephoned Jervis Langdon in Elreed to coe for the body to be taken to Elmira for burial in the family plot

The report of Jean's death in the New York Tribune showed her in one of her favorite photographs, riding horseback

Taking up his pen, Twain began writing about Jean in an effort to fatho” He wrote about their last night together, her high spirits as they discussed their plans for the co year, and the flood ofback to her childhood when she was free of illness and enjoying the ical life that he and Livy had created for their fa his eyes, he could see the happily, and his wife at his side

”How poor I arief, ”as once so rich!”39 If he went to Elmira, he kneould kill him He couldn't face another funeral ”He said he could never see another person belonging to hirave,” Katy recalled The next day-Christ roooodbye She earing the white silk dress she had worn as Clara's bridesht home from Bermuda It was to have been one of Jean's Christ the sad news to Clara and Ossip Because it would take too long for theile, Twain advised the couple to stay where they were ”Clara rieve about Jean,” he later wrote Ossip, ”but rejoice that she has escaped and is free”41 On Christan, blanketing the countryside ”There was not the least wind or noise,” Paine recalled, ”the whole world was muffled” Lanterns were placed at the door, and at six the hearse ca at an upstairs ain watched as the coffin was carried outside and placed in the black carriage Downstairs, a Schubert i on the orchestrelle Twain re, until the hearse started on its journey and faded fro snow”42 These are soraphs taken of Mark Twain The time is early April 1910, and the place is Berhter, Helen, is sitting beside Twain in the first picture The black armband was for Jean, who had died four months earlier

TWENTY-ONE

Revels Ended

I aedly well, I ah to excite an undertaker

Mark Twain