April 2 Friday — Clemens recorded this day’s events and of Ashcroft carrying Horace Hazen’s forced letter of “discharge” on the trip to Norfolk:
On the 2d I took Ashcroft with me to lunch with two ladies at The Hotel Gotham, & he was very sweet & nice, & the ladies liked him ever so much, & he had that letter in his pocket all the time, & was under contract, since March 13th, to look after my business matters & take good care of them, We joined Mr. Rogers & the others on the boat at mid-afternoon, & Ashcroft, with that letter in his pocket, dined with those people, swapped anecdotes & other sociabilities with them, & in these & in all ways allowed them to treat him just as if he were a gentleman. And three of them were fellow-countrymen of his—Englishmen: Mr. Broughton & Mr, Coe, sons-in-law of Mr. Rogers, and Mr. Lancaster of Liverpool, the city Ashcroft was born in.
Clear till bedtime Ashcroft, with that letter in his pocket, was as tenderly & watchfully & affectionately attentive to my slightest needs or desires as ever; & next day in Norfolk it was this same; & I think it was late afternoon of that day that he came into my room looking greatly surprised, with Horace’s open letter in his hand, & said—
“It’s from Horace—Miss Clara has discharged him!”
Isn’t it romantic! Isn’t it stagy & charming! [MTP: L-A MS XIII].
National Geographic Society per O.P. Austin, Wash. D.C. sent a pre-printed postcard “to acknowledge the receipt of your application for membership” [MTP].