April 29 Monday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. All the trunks and family had left Sam behind in the empty house:

I have been hidden an hour or two, reading proof of Joan, and now I think I am a lost child. I can’t find anybody on the place. The baggage has all disappeared, including the family. I reckon that in the hurry and bustle of moving to the hotel [Brighton] they forgot me. But it is no matter. It is peacefuller now than I have known it for days and days and days.

The letter he’d received from Rogers this morning “suits. Now you’re shouting,” he wrote at the suggestion that the Rogers family might accompany them on the world tour. He’d been reading the proofs and discovered “a couple of tip-top platform readings” — if his authorship wasn’t known by then, he’d reveal it. He was relieved to find out that the Frank Mayo contract did indeed guarantee him 20% of the net profits, and was happy that Rogers liked the play. His gout was now gone, cured with electricity, he claimed.

All the trunks are going over as luggage; then I’ve got to find somebody on the dock who will agree to ship 6 of them to the Hartford Customhouse. If it is difficult I will dump them into the river. It is very careless of Mrs. Clemens to trust trunks and things to me [MTHHR 143-4].