Sam wrote from Venice,  Italy to William Dean Howells.  Since his tirade letter about Bret Harte, Sam had not heard from  Howells, who had recommended to President Hayes that Harte be given a chance. Wisely, Howells  had not told Sam of his recommendation or answered Sam’s venom, and Sam had  noticed.

“Have I offended you in  some way? The Lord knows it is my disposition, my infirmaty, to do such things; but if I have done it in your case…I am sorry. / I wish you were Consul here,  for we want to stay a year, & would do so in that case—but as it is, I suppose  we shall only stay 3 or 4 weeks” [MTLE 3: 92].

In July, 1878  the Howells family had moved into “Redtop,” their new Belmont (Mass.) house, so  this may partly explain the dearth of letters. Their new house was designed by Elinor  Howells’ brother, William Rutherford Mead [MTNJ 2: 359n9].