his headquarters in Hartford, and in Elmira, New York.

He had an especial reason for going to Elmira. On the Quaker City he had
met a young man by the name of Charles Langdon, and one day, in the Bay
of Smyrna, had seen a miniature of the boy's sister, Olivia Langdon, then
a girl of about twenty-two. He fell in love with that picture, and still
more deeply in love with the original when he met her in New York on his
return. The Langdon home was in Elmira, and it was for this reason that
as time passed he frequently sojourned there. When the proofs of the
Innocents Abroad were sent him he took them along, and he and sweet
"Livy" Langdon read them together. What he lacked in those days in
literary delicacy she detected, and together they pruned it away. She
became his editor that winter--a position which she held until her death.

The book was published in July, 1869, and its success was immediate and
abundant. On his wedding-day, February 2, 1870, Clemens received a check
from his publishers for more than four thousand dollars, royalty
accumulated during the three months preceding. The sales soon amounted
to more than fifty thousand copies, and had increased to very nearly one
hundred thousand at the end of the first three years. It was a book of
travel, its lowest price three dollars and fifty cents. Even with our
increased reading population no such sale is found for a book of that
description to-day. And the Innocents Abroad holds its place--still
outsells every other book in its particular field. [This in 1917. D.W.]

Mark Twain now decided to settle down. He had bought an interest in the
Express, of Buffalo, New York, and took up his residence in that city in
a house presented to the young couple by Mr. Langdon. It did not prove a
fortunate beginning. Sickness, death, and trouble of many kinds put a
blight on the happiness of their first married year and gave, them a