ABSTRACT
Livy felt well enough in February to take her “blue pencil” to Clemens's letters. Her time with her husband increased to fifteen minutes every day, and she could be told when Jean and Clara came down with measles and the house quarantined. Riverdale was still more hospital than home. Clemens, ailing from bronchitis, rheumatism, and toothaches, was in bed nearly five weeks from April to May. Livy was reading again and dictating letters to Isabel Lyon, the secretary hired on recommendation of Mrs. Whitmore and who had begun working for them since October.
