ing at Chickering Hall,
Clemens, coming out into the wet blackness, happened to hear Richard
Watson Gilder's voice say to some unseen companion:

"Do you know General Grant has actually determined to write his memoirs
and publish them. He has said so to-day, in so many words."

Of course Clemens was immediately interested. It was the thing he had
proposed to Grant some three years previously, during his call that day
with Howells concerning the Toronto consulship.

With Mrs. Clemens, he promptly overtook Gilder and accompanied him to
his house, where they discussed the matter in its various particulars.
Gilder said that the Century Editors had endeavored to get Grant
to contribute to their war series, but that not until his financial
disaster, as a member of the firm of Grant & Ward, had he been willing
to consider the matter. He said that Grant now welcomed the idea of
contributing three papers to the series, and that the promised payment
of five hundred dollars each for these articles had gladdened his heart
and relieved him of immediate anxiety.--[Somewhat later the Century
Company, voluntarily, added liberally to this sum.]

Gilder added that General Grant seemed now determined to continue his
work until he had completed a book, though this at present was only a
prospect.

Clemens was in the habit of calling on Grant, now and then, to smoke a
cigar with him, and he dropped in next morning to find out just how far
the book idea had developed, and what were the plans of publication.
He found the General and his son, Colonel Fred Grant, discussing some
memoranda, which turned out to be a proposition from the Century Company
for the book publication of his memoirs. Clemens asked to be allowed to
look over the proposed terms, and when he had done so he said:

"General, it is clear that the Century people do not realize the
importance--the commercial magnitude of your book. It is not strange
that this is true, for they are comparatively new publishers and have
had little or no experience with books of this class. The terms they
propose indicate that they expect to sell five, possibly ten thousand
copies. A book from your hand, telling the story of your life and
battles, should sell not less than a quarter of a million, perhaps twice
that sum. It should be sold only by subscription, and you are entitled
to double the royalty here proposed. I do not believe it is to
your interest to conclude this contract without care