Livy darling, don’t worry about my health—it is perfect. We carried that Rockland house by storm, & ought to have done the same with that big Milwaukee audience the night before—but alas, I took a bath just before going on the platform, & it stupefied me. We did well enough, but not superbly. But last night we made a great triumph before a great Davenport audience. At 7.45 I was old & seedy & wretched from travlingⒶemendation all night & getting no sleep; but then I drank a big cup of black coffee & went on the stage as fine as a fiddle; answered an encore; was uproariously encored again, immediately; was encored again, straightway, & went on & made a happy excuse, & did the same after another encore at 9.45. I guess we sent that multitude home feeling jolly. It was the only big audience that has assembled in that town since 1875.

Took the train half an hour after midnight—had then been mainly without sleep for 2 days & nights—so we got a stateroom & I slept the night through. When I am in such trim as I was lig last night, I would rather be on the platform than anywhere in the world.

If I can only get through all right tomorrow night here, I’ll have no more troubles: 2 new pieces in the bill—“Agricultural Editor” & the “Blue-jays.”

Haven’t you the new appointments? Theny end with Washington, Feb. 28. I had them telegraphed to you. We are in Brooklyn Feb. 21, so you see that although I can’t manage the 26th, I can do it the 22d, & do it quite thoroughly & well, too, because I can leave New York at midnight the 21st, & be at home by 4 o’clock Sunday morning. The earlier date is preferable on many accounts; it will not take long too do it, anyway; & even if it should, I should not mind it.

I love you, my darling, & I am not forgetting that tomorrow is the great day, our most prized & memorable day. I keep it in mind—as I do also you, whom I deeply love.