Please deliver this
sonata [Opus 57] to your brother, my dear Josephine - I thank
you for wishing still to appear as if I were not altogether banished
from your memory, even though this came about perhaps more at
the instigation of others - You want me to tell you how I am.
A more difficult question could not be put to me - and I prefer
to leave it unanswered, rather than - to answer it too truthfully
- All good wishes, dear J[osephine].
As
always, your Beethoven
Who
is eternally devoted to you.