November 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Everett House in New York to Livy, his first love-letter since their engagement.

When I found myself comfortably on board the cars last night . . . I said to myself: “Now whatever others may think, it is my opinion that I am blessed above all other men that live; I have known supreme happiness for two whole days, & now I ought to be ready & willing to pay a little attention to necessary duties, & do it cheerfully.” Therefore I resolved to go deliberately through that lecture, without notes, & so impress it upon my memory & my understanding as to secure myself against any such lame delivery of it in future as I thought characterized it in Elmira. But I had little calculated the cost of such a resolution. Never was a lecture so full of parentheses before. It was Livy, Livy, Livy, Livy, all the way through! It was one sentence of Vandal to ten sentences about you. The insignificant lecture was hidden, lost, overwhelmed & buried under a boundless universe of Livy! [MTL 2: 288-93].

Sam also wrote Twichell of Livy’s acceptance.

Private. / My Dear J. H. / Sound the loud timbrel!—& let yourself out to your most prodigious capacity,—for I have fought the good fight & lo! I have won! Refused three times—warned to quit, once—accepted at last!—& beloved!—Great Caesar’s ghost, if there were a church in town with a steeple high enough to make it an object, I would go out & jump over it! [MTL 2: 293].