"Yes, and from another gentlemen I wrote to concerning you."
"They don't appear to have been very enthusiastic, from your manner."
"Well, yes, some of them were."
"I suppose I may ask what particular form their emotion took."
"Oh, yes, yes; they agree unanimously that you are a brilliant, able man
--a man with a future, and that you would make about the worst husband on
record."
The applicant had a forlorn look. "There is nothing very evasive about
that," he said.
Langdon reflected.
"Haven't you any other friend that you could suggest?"
"Apparently none whose testimony would be valuable."
Jervis Langdon held out his hand.
"You have at least one," he said. "I believe in you. I know you better
then they do."
The engagement of Samuel Langhorne Clemens and Olivia Lewis Langdon was
ratified next day, February 4, 1869. To Jane Clemens her son wrote:
"She is a little body, but she hasn't her peer in Christendom."