February 15 Monday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Susan Crane.
Susy dear, I have selected from Orion’s library 175 or 200 books & requested that they be shipped to you—& I said “Send the bill of costs to me, here, or to Mrs. Crane—either will do.” If the bill goes to you, ask Charley to pay it out of Livy’s money but be careful to charge it as “sundries” in her monthly account, or some such non-committal word, for Livy does not know of the death. You can put the boxes in my study or in the barn until you build your next house.
Very strange & wonderful, how Livy sinks down until our pulses stand still & we think the time is closing down upon us irrevocably—& next morning she is a bird again!
As per to-day. Yet yesterday I came near adding a page after my letter to Charley had been read by Livy—a page to say privately, “We are in deep uneasiness here.”
I do wish we could get her back into the wheel-chair once more & see her look as she looked 9 weeks ago—but that is away off! / Love to you such a much! [MTP].
Leila Gittings and Mary (not further identified) visited Jean, Miss Lyon and Clara (and possibly Sam) but was disappointed in being unable to see Livy, who was too ill to receive visitors; Leila suffered from a cold [Feb. 16 from Gittings].