August 25 Saturday – In Etretat, France Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers:

I find the Madam ever so much better in health and strength; but disappointed, for she hoped you and Mrs. Duff would come and let her take care of you as she proposed; but I told her I didn’t get the letter, which was true. But I don’t see how she would take care of anybody in this little Chalet des Abris, which is such an incredibly small coop that the family can’t find room to sleep without hanging their legs out of the windows.

Still, Sam thought the air “superb and soothing and wholesome,” and welcomed the remoteness as “just the place to write in.” He asked if Rogers could “assign to yourself the privileges and powers of proxy for Mrs. Clemens by virtue of your power of attorney?” Sam didn’t want Livy to have to make a “fatiguing journey” to Havre to find a US consul if they were to initiate the proxy there.

He was not yet aware that Rogers had signed a contract for Livy on Aug. 24 with Frank Bliss for the publication of PW by the American Publishing Co. [MTHHR 71-2].

Sam also worked on a magazine article on Aug. 25 and 26, which he did not finish. On Sept. 2 he wrote to Rogers that “It must be re-written on a different plan & from a different stand-point some day by & by.” The article is not identified [Sept. 2 to Rogers].