--[Villa Quarto has recently been purchased by Signor P.
de Ritter Lahony, and thoroughly restored and refreshed and beautified
without the sacrifice of any of its romantic features.]--Neither was the
climate of Florence all that they had hoped for. Their former sunny
winter had misled them. Tradition to the contrary, Italy--or at least
Tuscany--is not one perpetual dream of sunlight. It is apt to be damp
and cloudy; it is likely to be cold. Writing to MacAlister, Clemens
said:
Florentine sunshine? Bless you, there isn't any. We have heavy fogs
every morning & rain all day. This house is not merely large, it is
vast--therefore I think it must always lack the home feeling.
His dissatisfaction in it began thus early, and it grew as one thing
after another went wrong. With it all, however, Mrs. Clemens seemed to
gain a little, and was glad to see company--a reasonable amount of
company--to brighten her surroundings.
Clemens began to work and wrote a story or two, and those lively articles
about the Italian language.
To Twichell he reported progress:
I have a handsome success in one way here. I left New York under a
sort of half-promise to furnish to the Harper magazines 30,000 words
this year. Magazining is difficult work because every third page
represents two pages that you have put in the fire (you are nearly
sure to start wrong twice), & so when you have finished an article &
are willing to let it go to print it represents only 10 cents a word
instead of 30.
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