Twain, with Isabel a participant, hatched a plan, as convoluted as any of his fiction, to save his daughter’s honor. The framework can be found in the plot of Twain’s short story “Wapping Alice,” written in 1898. The basis for “Wapping Alice” was an actual event that occurred in the family home in Hartford in 1877. Twain had discovered that the English maid, Lizzie, had been seeing a young mechanic, Willie Taylor, late in the evenings. Willie had been sneaking into the house after hours through the basement to have sex with Lizzie and kept tripping the burglar alarm. After Twain confronted her, Lizzie confessed. He ordered her to bring Willie before him and gave the incredulous mechanic an ultimatum: he had to marry Lizzie immediately to keep her from being ruined. A reluctant Willie finally agreed and Twichell immediately performed the ceremony. Twain decided to launch a similar effort in early 1909 to force Clara into giving up Wark and, instead, to choose a life of respectability with Gabrilowitsch.
Isabel collapsed under the strain caused by Twain’s plotting. Two days before the Twichells came to visit, during the second week of January 1909, Isabel was diagnosed with neurasthenia and advised by her doctor “to stay right in this room & never move from it for a week & I’m not to know anything about anything in, or out of the house.” Over a month later, a still indisposed Isabel wrote (and then crossed out) lines about her and Ashcroft’s feelings for Twain in her date book: “He knows that we love him—we too; he knows that we couldn’t find happiness anywhere in the world while he lives, but with him, & he knows that he couldn’t drive us away without filling our lives with desolation. The 2 men walked to the gorge, & played billiards, & the King read more Macbeth to us. & we had a very sweet & placid day. My little bed is a blessed place to live in.”
This is quite a scene to envision. While Clara’s fury mounts and Jean’s loneliness grows, Twain, tucked away in his ersatz Italian villa in Connecticut, performs a dramatic reading to his two-person audience about betrayal, murder and guilt. Perhaps Twain read his rapt listeners these lines from Act 5, Scene 1:
Foul whisperings are abroad. Unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
Tone-deaf Isabel was delighted by Twain’s literary choice: “His reading of Shakespeare is the individual presentation of each character, & the … masterly, conscious, worship of the superb English of the matchless plays. [Crossed out: Ah, we are rarely treated by Fate; and we are aware of it. We do not hold cheaply any hour of any day; not any act, or presence of the King. To have him walk into this room where I lie in bed, is to have the place suddenly filled with the flash of human beauty, & wit flash upon flash of the Sweetest wit ever lodged in any mind.]” This entry, from February 13, 1909, is the last surviving one from Isabel’s 1909 date book.
It was at this time that Isabel and Ashcroft made the momentous decision that they would marry, presumably as a way to further protect Twain’s reputation and to insulate themselves from Clara’s anger. If Isabel is to be believed, Twain was, in effect, playing puppeteer with the lives of those closest to him under the guise of safeguarding the Clemens family honor, and Isabel entered into a sham marriage to Ashcroft to help him achieve his end. If this is true, Isabel was not entirely selfless in doing so. Her daily reminder entries reveal that Isabel regarded Ashcroft with considerable fondness (calling him “good Benares”) as well as recognizing him as a crucial ally. She likely thought that in marrying him, both her emotional desires and her financial needs would be fulfilled. Ashcroft also possessed a strong personality, and with his thorough knowledge of Twain’s business matters, Isabel was convinced that he would protect her. There are, however, multiple competing narratives, as revealed in journal entries and personal correspondence, and none is easily separable from any other. While Isabel later claimed—over three decades after the fact—that she had never loved Ashcroft and married him only because of a “deal” she had made with Twain, she gave friends contrary accounts.
On February 16, while still bedridden, Isabel wrote to Hattie Whit-more, her close friend and the daughter of Harriet Whitmore, that she would be traveling to Hartford the following Tuesday, February 23, to stay for a week at the elegant Heublein Hotel to recuperate. Isabel confided to Hattie that she and Ashcroft were going to wed, although “the psychic moment hasn’t come yet for telling the King.” Isabel was quick to reassure Hattie that her upcoming marriage “won’t make any difference in my life work with the King—I’ll stay right here, & Benares will come when he can to be with us both.” Isabel explained to Hattie that it was her preference that the ceremony be private, without “any engagement announcement, & there isn’t going to be any public wedding. It will be quiet as a whisper.” Certainly this was an odd request coming from a woman acutely aware of etiquette and who had long been interested in reclaiming her family’s position in society. Isabel’s ambivalent tone was evident on January 21, 1909, a few weeks before she wrote her letter to Hattie, in a date-book entry: “Plenty of time there is now, for thinking over conditions that are grave, that are important—that seem trivial, but in reality are most weighty.” After departing Stormfield, while at the Heublein, Isabel apparently felt the “psychic moment” had arrived and wrote to Twain about her nuptial plans.
Dear Mr. Clemens,
I’ve been thinking it all over—this, about Benares & me; & I know that I can’t go on alone carrying the dear weight of wonderful Stormfield direction. Together we can work for you. … And you won’t ever know anything different from the present plan, except that I will have one with the right to watch me, & keep me from breaking down. So I think, dear beautiful King, that before I come back to you, we’ll go quietly to New York & be married, & the announcement can follow a little later. I haven’t spoken of this to Benares, but I do want to hurry & get strong, & he can help me better than any one I know. … In fact, Benares has listened to my plan in this minute, & agrees that I am right. Dear King, I shall feel so much securer & of more value to you, & I’m so grateful for your sweet sanction.
In 1950, in her elder years, Isabel told Doris Webster an alternative version of the story. She explained that Ashcroft had taken her to Hartford to recover her health. Once they were there, an old friend of hers inquired if she was interested in marrying Ashcroft. Isabel said she was not, although Ashcroft “wants me to but I wouldn’t think of it.” Isabel’s friend responded that she had better do it because “there was a good deal of gossip around Hartford about her and M.T. because she had stayed on as his secretary after Mrs. C.’s death, and when the girls were away [she] was sometimes alone with him. The friend said rumors were going around that she was M.T.’s mistress.” Isabel told Doris that was the reason why she had wed Ashcroft; in effect, Ashcroft was an unwitting cover to protect her and Twain from errant gossip. Doris expressed to Isabel that this reason struck her as “a little unfair to him.” Isabel returned: “‘Why, it was what he … wanted.’” Supposedly it was only after her convalescence that Isabel told Twain about her plan: “she told M.T. that she was going to marry Ashcroft and he was furious. She said ‘Mr. Clemens, you once asked me, if I heard anything harmful to your reputation to tell you about it, and I said I would.’ She then told him the situation. She said he must come to her wedding. He was still very angry (and never really forgave her) but said he would come.” Isabel also told Doris that she had voluntarily offered to resign her position instead of marrying Ashcroft and that Twain “wouldn’t hear of it.”
Twain wrote yet another account of the story, claiming that upon Isabel’s return to Stormfield a “shamefaced, embarrassed, hesitating” Ashcroft told him about the impending marriage. Twain’s response was that “it was an insane idea, & unbelievable.” Ashcroft supposedly assured Twain that if he found the idea so repugnant they would delay their nuptials or cancel them entirely. However, Twain responded that he was unwilling to be “party to the freak in any way.” Ashcroft then offered that they could marry secretly,
a suggestion that Twain not only brushed aside but thought “could get us all into hot water presently.” The veracity of Twain’s account is highly questionable because a secret marriage would refute Isabel’s claim that a wedding had to occur in order to allay gossip about her being his mistress. Twain’s response was also bizarre when considered in the context that it seems reasonable that two single people who obviously had common interests might want to wed. How could the secrecy have put them into “hot water”? The likeliest explanation is that Twain was writing a fictionalized account. Yet marrying Ashcroft must have held some appeal for Isabel, and she probably believed at the time that she had played a perfect hand and won the trick.
Whether Isabel’s decision to marry Ashcroft was what Twain had told her to do or her own idea, in the end it was of no consequence to Clara. Isabel might have been holding up her end of Twain’s “deal” in marrying Ashcroft, as she later insisted, but Clara refused to willingly sacrifice her happiness on the altar of her father’s vanity. Clara was convinced that Isabel had informed Twain about Wark’s marital status. And thus enraged by this betrayal of her confidences, Clara also suspected Isabel of rumormongering, telling people in Hartford and Redding that she was insane as well as an adulteress. While Clara would be unable to sway her father from imposing sanctions against her, she could blame and seek revenge against Isabel, and did so with a furious energy.
At the same time that Isabel was ensconced at the Hotel Heublein, dithering over what explanation to give people for marrying Ashcroft, Clara began pressing her case to her father that Isabel had fraudulently misappropriated funds. A regrettable personality trait that Clara shared with her father and with her grandmother Jane Clemens was the tendency to form unforgiving personal grudges. Once condemned, former friends would rarely be reinstated into her good graces. Denied permission by her father to be with the man she loved, Clara directed her full wrath toward Isabel and no amount of punishment could ever prove adequate.
With Isabel absent in Hartford, Clara, along with her decidedly offbeat friend, the professional stage actress and psychic (two endeavors considered quite risqué at the time) Mary Lawton, paid Twain a visit. The two accused Isabel of embezzlement and argued that Clara had been shorted in her allowance because Isabel had stolen it. Twain considered the charges ludicrous, as did Mrs. Paine, who knew about the women’s visit. Mrs. Paine, no friend of Isabel’s, still found Clara’s claims preposterous and wrote her husband on March 8 that Twain was
being driven almost crazy, and he said that until three weeks ago he thought he was happy and well off, but since then it has been h——and that if things did not get better he would cut his G——D——throat—It would not be surprising what he might do—
Mr. Ashcroft and Miss Lyon are to be married!!! And it’s a sworn secret just now, but I suppose soon, what can he be thinking about but I suppose they think that is the only way out and the only thing to do since they have criticized Clara.
To cast doubt in her father’s mind and to have a plausible explanation for what would become a very public, vituperative attack, Clara claimed that Isabel had been stealing from Twain over an extended period. Isabel told Doris Webster years later that she had been accused by Clara of “taking various things from the Clemens house, getting away with money, taking rake-offs on things she bought for the house, etc. Clara and Paine and [John B.] Stanchfield [Twain’s Elmira-based attorney] were the prime movers.”
Isabel was not particularly surprised by Clara’s accusations, telling Doris that she had noticed Clara becoming increasingly unfriendly toward her “before the break came.” Clara objected to the quality of Isabel’s wardrobe, suspecting that she had been spending unapproved amounts for clothing purchases. Then there was a contretemps over the location of some “Carnellian beads” that had belonged to Olivia that Clara was convinced Isabel was intending to steal. What would become the largest and most serious point of contention, however, was the amount of money Isabel had spent on the renovation of Lyonesse. Twain asserted that he only became aware of the additional expenses after a chance conversation in early May with H. A. Lounsbury, the construction foreman, who supposedly informed him that the renovation of Isabel’s house had cost in excess of $3,500, not the $1,500 Twain claimed Isabel had told him. (A few months later, Ashcroft told John Stanchfield that Isabel had actually told Twain that the cost was $2,700, not $1,500.)
Twain rejected his daughter’s accusations in a letter written to Clara on March 11, 1909, reminding her that when Olivia originally hired Isabel she had agreed to a $50-per-month salary and had never asked for an increase. Isabel’s character, Twain argued, was well known to him: “I have no suspicions of her. She was not trained to business and doubtless has been loose and unmethodical, but that is all. She has not been dishonest, even to a penny’s worth. All her impulses are good and fine.” If Twain hoped his spirited defense would appease Clara, he underestimated her desire for revenge. Two days later, Ashcroft and Twain held a business meeting of sorts. “General Clean-Up Day,” as Twain would later term it, was intended to clarify both Ashcroft’s and Isabel’s standing in the household as well as their involvement in his business and legal affairs. Twain may have thought that if he adopted a more businesslike approach to dealing with Isabel, Clara would drop her allegations of graft. In the course of their meeting, Twain read and agreed to sign several legal documents. Two new contracts between Twain and Isabel were signed and notarized, the first stating that Isabel would “compile for publication the manuscript of a book or books to be entitled: ‘Life and Letters of Mark Twain’” with total compensation “in consideration of the sum of One Dollar, lawful money of the United States, each to the other paid.” The future royalties Isabel had been dreaming about were erased by a a stroke of Twain’s pen.
A second document, also dated March 13, delineated that Isabel was Twain’s “literary and social secretary” and would receive a monthly payment of $100 for services rendered, double the amount of her previous salary. Isabel’s duties would be sharply restricted to matters social and literary, “and not to those of any member or members of his family; she shall not be required to supervise, direct or attend to, in any way whatsoever, his household or any part thereof, or the affairs of any member thereof.” The Clemens daughters would no longer have to discuss the amount of their allowances with Isabel. Ashcroft also had Twain sign two agreements defining his responsibilities as an officer of the Mark Twain Corporation. Last, Ashcroft presented a “Memorandum of Understanding” to Twain stating that Isabel had been given permission by him to purchase clothes and make renovations on Lyonesse, with her promising to repay a portion of the funds. Twain read and signed all the documents. Again, if Twain thought these agreements would mollify Clara, he greatly underestimated his daughter’s ire. Five days after “Clean-Up Day,” Isabel and Ralph Ashcroft were married.
Isabel Lyon’s home before renovation
In the end, the decision about whether or not to make a public announcement was rendered academic by The New York Herald in its article published March 18, 1909.
Cupid has been active in the ranks of the Mark Twain Company (Inc.), and two of the directors are to form a subsidiary corporation. They are Miss Isabelle Van Kleek Lyon, private secretary, and Ralph W. Ashcroft, business agent for Mr. Samuel L. Clemens. The romance dates from the time Mr. Ashcroft became associated with the author. Friendship ripened into love, and without taking Mr. Clemens into their confidence the couple became engaged. … Mr. Clemens came to New York yesterday from his country place at Redding, Conn., to be present at the wedding. He is a guest at the home of Mr. H. H. Rogers, at No. 3 East Seventy-eighth street. He declined to see reporters last night, but Miss Clara Clemens, his daughter, told of the plans for the marriage. She said that both Mr. Ashcroft and Miss Lyon would remain with the Mark Twain Company, which was organized last December by Mr. Clemens, his two daughters, Mr. Ashcroft and Miss Lyon.
Isabel Lyon’s home after renovation
There was no pregnancy. However, less than a month later Twain severed the last tie that had enabled him to enjoy any semblance of normalcy.
On April 13, Clara sang at Mendelssohn Hall in New York City. Noteworthy is the fact among her musical selections that evening, Schubert, Schumann, and Strauss, she also sang a Gabrilowitsch composition. The New York Times reviewer thought it “a pity that a singer with as good a natural voice as that of Miss Clemens, who sings with so much feeling, should not use her voice to better advantage. Her tones last night were too often uneven and muffled.” The critic was more generous in his praise of Clara’s accompanist, Miss Littlehales. Playing a sonata by Johann Ernst Galliard and the obligato to Vannuccini’s “La Vision” on her cello while Clara sang, Miss Littlehales showed “good technique and true feeling,” according to the critic. “The audience was moderately enthusiastic.” Clara’s roughness in sound may have been because she had not yet grown entirely used to her accompanist. Twain had banished the person Clara cared for the most, and in return she would extract her pound of flesh.
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