Dear Ma—It is a great joy to us to hear you are progressing so finely. We hope you will continue to do so. Jean is skinning, now; & of course this is a time of great solicitude. For two weeks & a half, now, Rosa, Livy & I have been Jean’s nurses; & nobody else but the doctor allowed in that part of the house—& nobody allowed to enter the front door. I have written no letters, attended to no business, not even matters of the vastest importance. However, I am down, now, with lumbago & some other diseases, & this gives me a chance to clear away part of the accumulation of correspondence.

Pamela enclosed me a slip narrating the performance of a laydy who it is claimed short-handed a German speech into English while it was being delivered. There are extracts (to illustrate the frequently remote position of the German verb) in the Appendix to A Tramp Abroad which will convince any reasonable being that if she did do that miracle she holds the monopoly of an invaluable specialty—at least she can have no rival but God.