[eesmith]

I think that's a reasonable interpretation.

In looking for a connection between Twain and crinoline just now (spurred by your comment), I found https://webb-deane-stevens.org/swimming-against-the-tide-in-... :

> In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum will host a lecture, “Swimming Against the Tide in Crinoline and Pin Curls: The Life and Spirit of Isabella Beecher Hooker,” ... Raised to believe that her place was at home, Hooker chaffed at the role. She was prickly. She refused to go quietly. She sided against her powerful family when her brother, a noted minister, was involved in a sex scandal that rocked the nation. Though he was a neighbor, Mark Twain avoided her, as did some of her family members.

On the other hand, there's also the book "Crusader in Crinoline: the Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe", and Stowe and Twain were next-door neighbors and friends.