Han1 is certainly better, although fluctuating in her condition. I essayed to drive with her yesterday but was compelled to return. Some nights she does not sleep, at others sleeps well. She is about the house this morning: little appetite. She keeps your letters close by her: she cannot read much, or endure reading or talking. Dr Lund2 is attending her steadily; he is a good physician: Asks no fee, but I shall pay duk.00396.002_large.jpghim in my way. I have used a portion of the money sent to Han, which I shall repay—to help get a frame. I have numerous good paintings, but money is scarce. I have to meet my annual interest next week 15 dollars; that paid I shall have a year before me to housekeeping.
I washed our sheets yesterday, with Siddalls Soap3 nicely. I shall have a strange and instructing history to report some day probably, but I have saved in household service and other ways, over 60 dollars.
I shall continue as I am[:] our condition, of course is current through the town.
C L Heyde—Correspondent:
Charles Louis Heyde (ca.
1820–1892), a French-born landscape painter, married Hannah Louisa Whitman
(1823–1908), Walt Whitman's sister, and they lived in Burlington, Vermont.
Charles Heyde was infamous among the Whitmans for his offensive letters and poor
treatment of Hannah. For more information about Heyde, see Steven Schroeder,
"Heyde, Charles Louis (1822–1892)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).