May 14 Thursday – Sam and Carlyle G. Smythe left Durban at 6 p.m. on the Natal Govt. Railway for “the heat and turmoil” of the Transvaal. They were seen off at the station by David Hunter and A. Milligan. They traveled 71 miles to Pietermaritzburg, arriving at 10 p.m.. Sam and Smythe took rooms at the Imperial Hotel on Loop Street, Emma Thresh landlady, “sincere and genuine old-time English Inn…large room & comfortable.” The night was chilly and blustery; Sam “ordered up hot water & had a punch, & Mr. Smythe brought up the house-kitten: gray, & perfectly tame & sociable. I was asleep by 1” [Philippon 15; May 15 to Livy].

Livy and Clara stayed in Durban and would not reunite with Sam until June 17 in Port Elizabeth. It was the longest separation Sam and Livy had during the world tour. Willis writes,

Livy and Clara stayed in Durban while Clemens lectured throughout South Africa. Even by letter, Livy kept her role of advisor and admirer. She loved and missed him and cautioned him, “But you must continue to miss me and to think that you do not get on as well without me as you do with.” Although she could not physically be in his audience, she advised him on his lectures by mail as she had done when they were engaged twenty-seven years previously. He must make sure his presentations were long enough for the audience. “I want them to feel that they have had the worth of their money.” She advised including the “Jumping Frog” or “Buck Fanshaw” to lengthen his program. “I should think if a reader could make it go, you could make it go much better” [233].

Note: Livy’s concern with the time of Sam’s lectures seems a bit unwarranted, since reviewing the time of his lectures before this reveals they were fairly consistent at or close to 90 minutes.