‸begin insertion spanI love you, Livy—Livy dear—Livy love—I love you Livy—

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I kiss you, Livy—on forehead, cheek & lips.

I love you, Livy.             gillette house,

I love only Livy—nobody but Livy.‸end insertion span     ravenna, ohio, Feb. 16 15 Ⓐemendation 186 9.

Livy, darling, how are you this morning? For it is morning, I guess, inasmuch as it is only half past 9, & I have not got up yet. I only awoke a little while ago, & naturally thought of you the first thing. I don’t intend to get up till noon.

I wrote to our Mother,—if she will allow me to call her so—& the letter is gone.1explanatory note If I had it back I would write it over again. I see that in letting the letter “write itself” it took entirely too unconventional a form. I forgot, that occasionally, the fact that I was really writing to the public, instead of to her. And so I elaborated what needed no elaboration, & merely touched upon matters which should have been treated more fully. But don’t you see?—if I had kept the public in my mind, the sense of being questioned & cross-questioned by outsiders, upon matters entire essentially private & personal, would have been so oppressive that I could not have written at all. It is hard to know that what you are writing (confessing) about your most delicate & private affairs is to be read by strangers and unlovingly criticised & commented on at tea-tables & among miscellaneous groups who would often rather say a smart thing than a kind one. So I think that maybe, after all, there may have been a little natural impulse to hold back, instead of speaking out freely., though I was not really conscious of such an impulse. I do not think I am more sensitive than others would be under like circumstances.

I told Mrs. Fairbanks to have the ring made, & then express it to me at Elmira so that it would reach there about the 20th. And so you see I can put it on your finger myself, my precious little wife.

I wrote Twichell a short note yesterday to thank him for his kind efforts in forwarding our affairs. I told him we meant to lead a useful, c unostentatious & earnest religious life, & that I should unite with the church as soon as I was settled; & that both of us, on these accounts, would prefer the quiet, moral atmosphere of Hartford to the driving, ambitious ways of Cleveland. I wanted him to understand that what we want is a home—we are done with the shows & vanities of life & are ready to enter upon its realities—that we are tired of chasing its phantoms & shadows, & are ready to grasp its substance. At least I am—& “ I” means both of us, & “both of us” means I of course—for are not we Twain one flesh?2explanatory note

I read a great deal in the Testament last night—why didn’t we read the Testament more, instead of carrying loads of books into the drawing—room which we never read? I thought of it lay Several times==

Clouding up again—well, is it never going to clear off? I will go to sleep again. Take this loving kiss & go to bed yourself, my idol.