The pageant was over, the curtain was rung down. Business
was resumed at the old stand.
LXV.
THE REMOVAL TO REDDING
There followed another winter during which I was much with Mark Twain,
though a part of it he spent with Mr. Rogers in Bermuda, that pretty
island resort which both men loved. Then came spring again, and June,
and with it Mark Twain's removal to his newly built home, "Stormfield,"
at Redding, Connecticut.
The house had been under construction for a year. He had never seen it
--never even seen the land I had bought for him. He even preferred not to
look at any plans or ideas for decoration.
"When the house is finished and furnished, and the cat is purring on the
hearth, it will be time enough for me to see it," he had said more than
once.
He had only specified that the rooms should be large and that the
billiard-room should be red. His billiard-rooms thus far had been of
that color, and their memory was associated in his mind with enjoyment
and comfort. He detested details of preparation, and then, too, he
looked forward to the dramatic surprise of walking into a home that had
been conjured into existence as with a word.
It was the 18th of June, 1908, that he finally took possession.
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