all
in February, in which he said:

I am writing a companion piece to 'The Prince and the Pauper', which is
half done & will make 200,000 words.

That is to say, he had written one hundred thousand words in a period of
perhaps six weeks, marvelous work when one remembers that after all
he was writing history, some of which he must dig laboriously from a
foreign source. He had always, more or less, kept up his study of the
French, begun so long ago on the river and it stood him in good stead
now. Still, it was never easy for him, and the multitude of notes along
the margin of his French authorities bears evidence of his faithfulness
and the magnitude of his toil. No previous work had ever required
so much of him, such thorough knowledge; none had ever so completely
commanded his interest. He would have been willing to remain shut away
from visitors, to have been released altogether from social obligations;
and he did avoid most of them. Not all, for he could not always escape,
and perhaps did not always really wish to. Florence and its suburbs
were full of delightful people--some of them his old friends. There were
luncheons, dinners, teas, dances, concerts, operas always in progress
somewhere, and not all of these were to be resisted even by an absorbed
author who was no longer himself, but sad old Sieur de Conte, following
again the banner of the Maid of Orleans, marshaling her twilight armies
across his illumined page.

CLXXXIV. NEW HOPE IN THE MACHINE

If all human events had not been ordered in the first act of the primal
atom, and so become inevitable, it would seem a pity now that he must
abandon his work half-way, and make another hard, distracting trip to
America.

But it was necessary for him to go. Even Hall was no longer optimistic.
His letters provided only the barest shreds of hope. Times were hard and
there was every reason to believe they would be worse. The World's
Fair year promised to be what it speedily became--one of the hardest
financial periods this country has ever seen. Chicago could hardly have
selected a more profitless time for her great exposition. Clemens
wrote urging Hall to sell out all, or a portion, of the business--to do
anything, indeed, that would avoid the necessity of further liability
and increased dread. Every payment that could be spared from the sales
of his manuscript was left in Hall's hands, and such moneys as still
came to Mrs. Clemens from her Elmira interests w