July 31 Tuesday – In New York City Sam wrote to Livy that he was going to Hartford for a day or two; that the trip to Chicago being delayed, that Urban H. Broughton proposed to come east after Aug. 12 and that H.H. Rogers was “about half worn out with work & the heat & the trouble of his great loss.” It was a delay that could not be helped, he wrote. Plus, Rogers’ secretary, Katharine I. Harrison, was still sick, so that H.H. had to “work double tides & it wears on him like everything.” On the literary front Sam was also marking time:

Livy dear, I am going to run up to Hartford this afternoon for a day or two. …

…

I went to Harpers this forenoon to decline their offer (Joan), but Alden has gone away on his vacation. They want me to talk with Harry Harper first; he is out of town; I will see him when I return from Hartford. Their offer was $5,000 for this first part of Joan (in case I carried the work no further before next April.) That would be only $75 per 1,000 words. I told them frankly that I thought it a rather slim price; so they urged me to appoint day & place & Harry Harper would come & see me & discuss the matter; but I couldn’t make an appointment, but said I would call on him when I got a chance.

Sam also complained of the heat and hoped Livy was “all comfortable housed & happy on the hillside at Etretat by this time” [MTP].

Sam left for Hartford and a two-day stay with the Whitmores [Aug. 3 to Livy].

Meanwhile, at the Hotel Brighton in Paris, France, Livy wrote to Sam. Livy, Susy and Jean had arrived in Paris this day from Fontainbleau, hating to “leave that lovely spot.” After expressing a wish that Sam might be able to come soon, and suggesting he might leave some of the work there in the hands of George Warner, she wrote her concerns about putting the interests of the creditors ahead of their own. This letter reflects that Livy was anything but a compliant doormat for Sam’s business endeavors:

You say that Mr Rogers wanted to ask the creditors 25 cents [percent royalty] and that you felt that .20 was enough for Puddin’head Wilson. In that case if I were over there I should probably ask them .10 or .15[.] What we want is to have those creditors get all their money out of Webster & Co. and surely we want to aid them all that is possible. Oh my darling we want those debts paid and we want to treat them all not only honestly but we want to help them in every possible way. It is money honestly owed and I cannot quite understand the tone which both you & Mr Rogers seem to take — in fact I cannot understand it at all. You say Mr Rogers has said some caustic and telling things to the creditors. (I do not know what your wording was) I should think it was the creditors place to say caustic things to us.

My darling I cannot have any thing done in my name that I should not approve. I feel we owe those creditors not only the money but our most sincere apologies that we are not able to pay their bills when they fall due. When these bills are all paid, as they of course will be, I do not want the creditors to feel that we have in any way acted sharply or unjustly or ungenerously with them. I want them to realize & know, that we had their own interest at heart, more, much more than we had our own. You know my darling, now is the time for you to add to or mar the good name that you have made. Do not for one moment [let] your sense of our need of money get advantage of your sense of justice & generosity. Dear sweet darling heart! You will not throw this aside thinking that I do not understand will you? You will always consider at every proposition whether it is one that I would approve will you not?

Livy added she was proud of his “Defense of Harriet Shelley” article, and liked Charles Dudley Warner’s The Golden House. She added they would start for Etretat the next day (Aug.1), and offered a poem from the Critic, “Light” by Francis W. Bourdillon, first published in 1878.