December 17 Monday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam finished his Dec. 16 to Rogers.

Yours containing Cole’s and Paige’s letters to Brusnahan came to my bed just before I got up. By George, that wolf does seem to be approaching my door again! I wish he would apply somewhere where he hasn’t worn out his welcome. [Note: Charles J. Cole, Hartford Atty.].

Sam’s hindsight told him that it might have been best to use the old machine for a test “under Broughton’s eye for two months” before trying it at the Chicago Herald. He wished Paige and the others would give Rogers full control of the patents so they might be traded to the Mergenthaler Co. for stock, but realized that only Paige was in a position to do so. Sam speculated on coming back:

If I have to cross the sea I am in good shape for it now, because it would not interrupt my work entirely, at all. I am on my course, now; it is clearly charted, I know my road. I could go on with my work — on shipboard; in your office; in my lodgings; in fact anywhere. While it would of course be very hard on Mrs. Clemens to spare me, she would manage to do it, if necessary.

Sam hated the thought that all their work might only succeed in making Paige a fortune, but he had to bury himself in “the mists of the Middle Ages” and finish his book. He wished Rogers a Merry Christmas, and added after his signature some concern for John Brusnahan, who would not afford to lose his entire fortune in the machine [MTHHR 106-7].