14/03/2026 17:40

---

Then, next morning, he was seized withthe notion of writing a series of letters to such friends as Howells,Twichell, and Rogers--letters not to be mailed, but to be laid away forsome future public. We cannot have athing like that too often. Take a man like Sir Oliver Lodge, and what secret of Nature can be hiddenfrom him? He says: A billion, that is a million millions,[?? TrillionD. I said: There is this objection: the characters are so slightly different that each writer soon forms a system of his own and it is seldom that two can read each other's notes.

I often think of it with a kind ofsoft regret. Chapter III of Mark Twain'snovel, The American Claimant, contains a scene between Colonel Sellersand Washington Hawkins which presents the extravagance of the Colonel'smaterialization scheme. Clemens attended it incompany with Mr. (Takes a list of the things she is to buy-a list which she will presently hand to another.