The American Claimant
satisfactory—Sellers’s new picture of Lord Berkeley—“He is a wobbler”—The unsuccessful dinner-parties—“They flung their arms about each other’s necks"

CHAPTER XXII.
“The materializing has got to stop where it is”—Sally Sellers repudiates “Lady Gwendolen”—The late Lord Berkeley Sally’s hero—“The shady devil [Doubt] had knifed her"

CHAPTER XXIII.
Tracy writes to his father—The rival houses to be united by his marriage to Sally Sellers—The earl decides to “step over and take a hand”—“The course of true love,” etc., as usual—“You an earl’s son! show me the signs"

CHAPTER XXIV.
Time drags heavily for all concerned—Success of “Pigs in the Clover”—Sellers is “fixed” for his temperance lecture—Colonel and Mrs. Sellers start for Europe—Interview of Hawkins and Sally—Tracy an impostor

CHAPTER XXV.
Telegram: “She’s going to marry the materializee”—Interview between Tracy and Sally—Arrival of the usurping earl—“You can have him if you’ll take him”—A quiet wedding at the Towers—Sellers does not join the party to England—Preparing to furnish climates to orderMARK TWAIN.
Hartford, 1891.
THE WEATHER IN THIS BOOK.
No weather will be found in this book. This is an attempt to pull a
book through without weather. It being the first attempt of the kind in
fictitious literature, it may prove a failure, but it seemed worth the
while of some dare-devil person to try it, and the author was in just
the mood.Many a reader who wanted to read a tale through was not able to do it
because of delays on account of the weather. Nothing breaks up an
author’s progress like having to stop every few pages to fuss-up the
weather. Thus it is plain that persistent intrusions of weather are bad
for both reader and author.Of course weather is necessary to a narrative of human experience. That
is conceded. But it ought to be put where it will not be in the way;
where it will not interrupt the flow of the narrative. And it ought to
be the ablest weather that can be had, not ignorant, poor-quality,
amateur weather. Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand
can turn out a good article of it. The present author can do only a few
trifling ordinary kinds of weather, and he cannot do those very good.
So it has seemed wisest to borrow such weather as is necessary for the
book from qualified and recognized experts—giving credit, of course.
This weather will be found over in the back part of the book, out of
the way. _See Appendix_. The reader is requested to turn over and help
himself from time to time as he goes along.

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