_[Edinburgh, June 1874], Friday._
MY DEAR COLVIN,--I am seedy--very seedy, I may say. I am quite unfit for
any work or any pleasure; and generally very sick. I am going away next
week on Wednesday for my cruise which I hope will set me up again. I
should like a proof here up to Wednesday morning, or at Greenock,
Tontine Hotel, up to Friday morning, as I don't quite know my future
address. I hope you are better, and that it was not that spell of work
you had that did the harm. It is to my spurt of work that I am
_redevable_ for my harm. Walt Whitman is at the bottom of it all, _'cre
nom_! What a pen I have!--a new pen, God be praised, how smoothly it
functions! Would that I could work as well. Chorus--Would that both of
us could work as well--would that all of us could work as well!--Ever
yours,