Livy darling, what a thin I am in a bother, & don’t know whether to be irritated or amused. I was mourning over my miserable lecture this afternoon, & saying I would give Reading & Easton a lecture for nothing in February & do it gladly, if I could get off from those engagements now & thus gain time to write a new lecture. I was thoroughly miserable and broken-hearted. An old Californian friend1explanatory note proposed various ways to accomplish the thing—none seemed to hit it—finally he said leave it to him & let him telegraph those people in my name & he would fix it. I said go it! The next I saw of him he told me he had telegraphed them that I was called away immediately by sickness in my family; & that they must advertise the postponement freely amply at my expense, & that I would come & lecture for them for nothing between the 5th & tenth of February! Horrible—but in spite of everything I could not keep from secretly rejoicing there was such a load taken from my breast. I am beginning to get really happy & light hearted & by morning shall be absolutely jubilant, I think. Reading & Easton promptly telegraphed acceptance of the proposition.2explanatory note

But don’t let this unhappy business get into the papers—I mean contradictions of it. If Warner3explanatory note speaks of it you can tell him all about it & stop the contradictions. I seem doomed to be always in the papers about private matters.

Bless your dear old heart, I shall reach Washington tomorrow night, & then for two days & nights I shall work like a beaver on my new lecture. How I ever came to get up such a mess of rubbish as this & imagine it good, is too many for me.4explanatory note

But good night, my best beloved darling for I must rise &Ⓐemendation 6.30 & start.