It is 7.30 P.M., & I have not seen Livy since 2. The amount of fortitude necessary to enable me to endure this separation is just about the amount required to enable a martyr to endure burning at the stake. Maybe martyrs enjoy this sort of heroism—I don’t. However, I believe Livy thinks one visit a day to Mrs. Brooks’s (with an apostrophe & an extra s,) is enough, & so I submit. I arrived here at 5 PM yesterday, & went up to Mrs. B.’s & staid till 10, leaving promptly at that hour. I was there to-day from 11 till 2, & I am not to go again till to-morrow.

Livy is thoroughly enjoying herself, & it does me good to see how those two children nestle respectfully about her, & gaze at her, & hang upon her words, & worship her.2explanatory note But it only gratifies me—it does not surprise me. It would surprise me if they did otherwise. Remsen is somewhat jealous of me—& he looked so sorrowful when I took possession of Livy to help her up & down stairs (a felicity which he had been enjoying,) that I was not distressed at all when she declined my assistance & accepted his. Still, if this infant becomes too pointed in his attentions, I shall have him for breakfast some morning.

Livy was a little homesick after you departed, she says, & half wished she had gone with you. At first I was sorry she had did not go, & so save herself from that depression of spirits, but I soon felt otherwise—for I saw that she was happy & contented, & moreover that she was recuperating fast & looking stronger & brighter, & I felt that a ten-hour rail-trip added right on to the fatigues she had been undergoing, could not have been good for her. It would have worn the poor child out. I am going to start home with her Saturday morning, (she having canvassed the matter of her own accord with Mrs Brooks & satisfied herself Ⓐemendationthat there w Ⓐemendationcan be no impropriety in it,) & then we will all go out immediately & see Mrs. Fairbanks3explanatory note—for there is nothing much to be gained by getting into the Hartford Post (though further of that with Mr. Langdon.) The Governor Jewell told me Ⓐemendation 4explanatory note We looked for Charley this morning, but I have just come from his hotel & they are not expecting him.

Sanford Greeves was at Mrs Brooks’s’s last night—a good, well-behaved, gentle-natured, fair & honorable & very young man, of little force & very harmless. It is well his good angel saved him from matrimony. Emma Figuratively speaking, Emma would have made him climb a tree in less than six months. How she would have lorded it over him! Why they were utterly unfitted for each other, & I cannot see what ever pro bred their love. He is so meek, & she so—so—so otherwise as you might say. They got ready for mating, several centuries too soon, as nearly as I can make it out, after ciphering all through the Book of Revelations. Now if they could only have been patient, & waited for the Millennium,—when “the lion & the lamb shall lie down together.”5explanatory note It would have been all right, then—but not in the nineteenth century.

I wanted to take Greeves by the hand, & throw myself on his bosom & weep down the back of his neck, & congratulate him, but I didn’t dare to do it. Because Livy was there—& you know I have to walk mighty straight when she is around. She isn’t very strong, but she can make me behave.

Pray Ⓐemendation give my love to Mr. Langdon, & to Theodore & Mrs. Sue—& permit me to subscribe myself