Livy darling, if they want Cable they must apply to him themselves— as for me, I wouldn’t even vaguely suggest it to him for any money. He might & may say yes, if they ask him, but I’ll never believe it till I see it. He is one of the most spoiled men, by success in life, you ever saw. If imagine that if a charity wants his in-his-opinion-Aalmighty aid, that charity will have to pay dollars for it. I don’t believe he would do anything for nothingⒶemendation. I don’t believe he “lays over,” Sundays, gratis; I believe he keeps an account against God. Of of course I may be all mistaken, but no matter, I think these things. And he would be quite right to decline to read in Hartford for nothing. It is not his town; he owes nothing to its charities. Don’t you allow yourself to be in any way, directly or indirectly, concerned in the applying to him.

Hang it, I believe he did read for a ladies’ charity in New Orleans for nothing. And so, after all—

No—I’ve ransacked my memory, & I was wrong—he told the ladies he would charge his regular price—& he did, & collected it. No, he wouldn’t read in Hartford for nothing; he wouldn’t read in Heaven for nothing.

I ate my usual supper of beefsteak &c at 11 last night, & have been lying here upwards of 10 hours thinking about it. I will get up, now, & take the train for Canada & leave 24 hours between my meals. When I sit down to supper at 11 to-night, I shall have a stomach in first–class condition, & no indigestions hanging around it.

To my darling.