g to analyze their magic.
Then he asked solemnly:

"And is he never serious?"

And Dr. Parker as solemnly answered:

"Mr. Arnold, he is the most serious man in the world." Dr. Parker,
recalling this incident, remembered also that Protap Chunder Mazoomdar,
a Hindoo Christian prelate of high rank, visited Hartford in 1883, and
that his one desire was to meet Mark Twain. In some memoranda of this
visit Dr. Parker has written:

I said that Mark Twain was a friend of mine, and we would
immediately go to his house. He was all eagerness, and I perceived
that I had risen greatly in this most refined and cultivated
gentleman's estimation. Arriving at Mr. Clemens's residence, I
promptly sought a brief private interview with my friend for his
enlightenment concerning the distinguished visitor, after which they
were introduced and spent a long while together. In due time
Mazoomdar came forth with Mark's likeness and autograph, and as we
walked away his whole air and manner seemed to say, with Simeon of
old, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace!"

CXLVII. THE FORTUNES OF A PLAY

Howells is of the impression that the "Claimant" play had been offered
to other actors before Raymond was made aware of it; but there are
letters (to Webster) which indicate that Raymond was to see the play
first, though Clemens declares, in a letter of instruction, that he
hopes Raymond will not take it. Then he says:

Why do I offer him the play at all? For these reasons: he plays
that character well; there are not thirty actors in the country who
can do it better; and, too, he has a sort of sentimental right to be
offered the piece, though no moral, or legal, or other kind of
right.

Therefore we do offer it to him; but only once, not twice. Let us
have no hemming and hawing; make short, sharp work of the business.
I decline to have any correspondence with R. myself in any way.

This was at the end of November, 1883, while the play was still being
revised. Negotiations with Raymond had already begun, though he does not
appear to have actually seen the play during that theatrical season, and
many and various were the attempts made to place it elsewhere; always
with one result--that each actor or manager, in the end, declared it
to be strictly a Raymond play. The thing was hanging fire for nearly
a year, altogether, while they were waiting on Raymond, who