June 8 Thursday – Clara Clemens’ nineteenth birthday.

At the Villa Viviani, Florence, Sam wrote to Joe Twichell. He did not mention Clara’s birthday.

The sea voyage set me up & I reached here May 27 in tolerable condition — nothing left but weakness, cough all gone. I was ill in bed eleven days in Chicago, a week in Elmira & 3 months in New York (seemingly) & accomplished nothing that I went home to do.

The packing to leave is going on, & this house looks like chaos come again. But Livy will resolve it to perfect order with a sure hand — that I know. We leave for Germany five days hence — 3 of us. Susy will probably go to Paris for a while with the Mademoiselle [Lançon].

Sam also wrote that Livy had improved in the nine months of “semi-seclusion.” He congratulated Joe on his new grandchild, and found it hard to imagine Harmony Twichell as an “invalid.” He reported on a visit at the neighbor’s, “Old” Sir Henry Layard [MTP]. Note: Joe had written on June 5, but that letter would not have arrived by the time Sam wrote; this response to another, not extant. Sam wrote to daughter Clara on Mar. 12 about a visit by the Layards; this may refer to that visit or may be one more recent.