“How much longer is Elmira to contain” me? Well, I can’t tell, yet. We can’t figure it out, yet. Livy says, until business obliges me to go. I feel about that way myself. I’m not in any hurry. I consider it “politic” to tire them all out now if I am ever going to do it—& not wait until it is everlastingly too late. But you are right—& your head is level—your head is always level on the wisdom of life. No indeed, you are not too “officious”—I want you to understand that your Motherly “officiousness” is always welcome, & always required of you. But Livy & I have talked this thing all over, to-day—& the result is, I am going to stay a while longer,—though, to speak truly, your letter came near making me pack my trunk.1explanatory note

Why bless you I almost “abandoned all idea” I months ago, when Mr. Benedict declined to sell an interest, & I knew so well that it would very much cripple Mr. Fairbanks’ strength in the establishment to part with a share of his half. I did not want to talk to B. again, & I didn’t want Mr. Fairbanks to take me in unless the taking me into the partnership unless the doing it would help us both—not make me & partly unmake him.2explanatory note So I began looking around. I made proposals to an eastern newspaper firm, & they wrote to one partner to come home from Europe & t Ⓐemendation see about it. He was to have spent the summer or a part of it abroad, but they say he will now get back in May.3explanatory note Therefore I am reading proof & waiting. I wait very patiently, because this thing of settling down for life is the solemnest thin Ⓐemendation matter that has ever yet come into my calculations, & I am not inclined to get in a sweat about it, or make a move without looking well into it first. I must not make a mistake in this thing. As I do not quite understand having secrets from you, I will say that the eastern paper I allude to is the Hartford Courant—though I have a strong impression that I told you about it or wrote you about it some time ago. But you know, one can’t write business worth a cent—I’ll tell you what plans I have now, or may conceive, when I see you—which I hope won’t be many weeks hence. I Ⓐemendation think two or three of us will make you a visit as soon as this proof-reading is over. I would talk more with Livy about it, but that it is a little far away as yet. She will be of the party—the others will doubtless be Mrs. Langdon & myself.

I tell you Mr. Fairbanks’ instincts are sound—a man in love don’t bother about business much, & that is a petrified fact—but bye-&-bye—bye-&-bye.

Every day I expect a call to “come to Hartford” & cut down the MSS. We have read 300 pages of proof & are only to the middle of Rome4explanatory note—at this rate the book will make at least a thousand pages—& so it must be cut down by wholesale. What I hate, is, that it will be the best part that will be sacrificed by the scissors.

Please to kiss Mollie5explanatory note for me—& give my love to the rest of the household. I would write more, & write interestingly, too, but supper is ready & Livy is suffering for my presence. She has changed her notions, some, since that first letter of hers which I read to you last fall—for which I am profoundly thankful. {Supper bell.} {Second gong.} {Mary.}6explanatory note

“Coming!” {I mean “adieu.”}