February 18 Tuesday – Sam and Carlyle Smythe arrived back in Calcutta at 11 a.m. At 2 p.m., at the Continental Hotel, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, having just received his Jan. 9 letter (not extant). He referenced May Rogers’ elopement and annulment and wrote, “she is out of it, & that is the important thing.” Sam was comforted by the creditors accepting payment on a 50 cents per dollar basis, and by Frank Mayo’s success with the dramatization of PW. If the Harper’s agreement fell through because Frank Bliss still retained copyright, Sam thought he’d have to give all of the books to Bliss for “a term of years.”

We are just in from a long trip — 2 p.m., now — & I am going to bed & rest up a little, for I leave for the west at 9 to-night & travel till noon to-morrow…. We came down the mountain (40 miles) at a dizzy toboggan gait on a six-seated hand-car & never enjoyed ourselves so much in all our lives. We started in rugs & furs & stripped as we came down, as the weather gradually changed from eternal snow to perpetual hellfire [MTHHR 194-5]. Note: Sam misdated this letter as Feb. 17.

Sam also wrote a short note of compliments on his ten-day stay to the Hotel Continental [MTP].

Sam and Carlyle G. Smythe left Calcutta at 9:30 p.m. for Muzaffarpur, some 354 miles, on a private rail car. Parsons: “In a partly backtracking lecture itinerary, the Clemenses were soon traveling northwest through fields of poppies to Muzaffarpur, then by a branch line to the Ganges near Dinapur and on to Benares…for a twenty-four hour stopover” [“MT India” 90].

At about 11 p.m. in Calcutta, Livy wrote a long letter to daughter Jean. This shows that the ladies did not go to Muzaffarpur, as does Sam’s notebook entry of Feb. 20.

Sunday Evening, Calcutta / Feb. 18th / You see my darling child that my letter did not get finished up at Darjeeling, and now we are back here. Papa and Mr. Smythe have gone on, and Clara & I remain here 24 hours longer. …

…And so ended our most delightful trip up in the Himalayan mountains. I could write out with as much more to say that I think would be of interest to you, but as I was up yesterday morning at five & to-day at four and it is now after eleven at night, & I am to ride all night tomorrow night I think I better stop & go to bed. Don’t you? You know my darling child that each of my letters is for you all, for I cannot command time or strength to write what I want to each one. So you will let Aunt Sue & Susy & Aunt Ida share their letters if they wish to, nicht? [Ahluwalia 44-5].