e his first public appearance on the
dramatic stage.

It was an amateur performance, but not of the usual kind. There was
genuine dramatic talent in Hartford, and the old play of the "Loan of
the Lover," with Mark Twain as Peter Spuyk and Miss Helen Smith--[Now
Mrs. William W. Ellsworth.]--as Gertrude, with a support sufficient
for their needs, gave a performance that probably furnished as much
entertainment as that pleasant old play is capable of providing. Mark
Twain had in him the making of a great actor. Henry Irving once said to
him:

"You made a mistake by not adopting the stage as a profession. You would
have made even a greater actor than a writer."

Yet it is unlikely that he would ever have been satisfied with the
stage. He had too many original literary ideas. He would never have been
satisfied to repeat the same part over and over again, night after night
from week to month, and from month to year. He could not stick to the
author's lines even for one night. In his performance of the easy-going,
thick-headed Peter Spuyk his impromptu additions to the lines made it
hard on the company, who found their cues all at sixes and sevens, but
it delighted the audience beyond measure. No such impersonation of that.
character was ever given before, or ever will be given again. It was
repeated with new and astonishing variations on the part of Peter,
and it could have been put on for a long run. Augustin Daly wrote
immediately, offering the Fifth Avenue Theater for a "benefit"
performance, and again, a few days later, urging acceptance. "Not for
one night, but for many."

Clemens was tempted, no doubt. Perhaps, if he had yielded, he would
today have had one more claim on immortality.

CVII. HOWELLS, CLEMENS, AND "GEORGE"

Howells and Clemens were visiting back and forth rather oftener just
then. Clemens was particularly fond of the Boston crowd--Aldrich,
Fields, Osgood, and the rest--delighting in those luncheons or dinners
which Osgood, that hospitable publisher, was always giving on one
pretext or another. No man ever loved company more than Osgood, or to
play the part of host and pay for the enjoyment of others. His dinners
were elaborate affairs, where the sages and poets and wits of that day
(and sometimes their wives) gathered. They were happy reunions, those
fore-gatherings, though perhaps a more intimate enjoyment was found at
the luncheons, where only two or three were invited, usually Aldrich,
Ho