Letter 6021: You had written that my daughter's health was fully restored.

Some time ago you wrote back that my daughter's health had been restored; then, in the letters that followed, you planted a recurring sting in our anxiety. And so I am tormented by the more recent news, because adverse reports are the more readily believed. I wait anxiously, so that, if the day has brought any good, you may let us know. But in this matter, in which our parting torments you, I recognize the disposition of my own mind; yet for the present it is better, amid our mutual longings, to counsel patience than to embark upon anything we shall regret through the weakness of affection. Soon, when your own brother, as you say, who is hoped for from nearby, has arrived, he will grant you a return both happy and necessary, for the sake of dividing your shared companionship between you. [Editorial apparatus: at line 3, "animis non annis" (so the editor i7); P reads "animis"; between the lines about five letters ("nanis"?) have been erased; "affectos" in P; line 2, second hand: "desiderant" in P; "aegritudinis" in P; line 22, "securis" in P, third hand. Letter XXI (XXII); winter of 395/6.]

Dudum sanitatem filiae meae integratam esse rescripseras ; mox sequentibus lit- teris sollicitudini nostrae recidivum aculeum subdidisti. conflictor igitur nuntio recen- tiore, quia magis adversa creduntur. expecto anxie, ut si quid boni dies adtulit, in- dicetis. in eo autem, quod vos discessus noster excruciat, habitum meae mentis 30 agnosco; sed adhuc desideriis mutuis praestat suadere patientiam quam paenitendum aliquid per inbecillitatem adfectionis ordiri. mox cum germanus tuus de proximo, ut ais, speratus adfuerit, et felicem vobis et necessarium reditum dividendae inter vos communionis causa praestabit. 3 animis non annis] (i7), animis P, Btd inier lineas quhique fere litterae (nanis?) erasae $unl afTectos P 2 m. 8 /esiderant P aegitndinis P 22 secnris P J m. XXI (XXn) hieme 395/6.