_Rome,
December._
Your cable telling me of your willingness to announce our engagement
was received with inexpressible happiness. I did not realize that
making known our secret would bring such a new joy into my life. It
almost makes me burst from sheer felicity when people say pleasant
things. Dear old Checkers sent me an engagement book because, he
wrote, I was engaged! Beaming, round-faced Pan bustled in, with his
red fez on one side, and his fingers strung with all his jewelled
rings, to talk about you and my wonderful luck. He got as excited as I
did, and we both rattled on at the same time. Then we went out to
dinner and had a bottle of champagne. Up he got to drink our
healths,--can’t you see him?--reciting,
“May your joys be as deep as the ocean,
Your sorrows as light as its foam!”
But poor Charlton! I went in to tell him of our engagement and he gave
me the warmest congratulations. He doesn’t seem any better. Indeed,
Polly, I doubt if he is ever going to get well. I shall hurry
homewards as soon as possible, but I can’t leave him now. Pay no
attention to your Aunt’s obstacles, my dear, if they threaten our love
for each other, will you? Surely, surely, you will be true.
* * * * *