Dart begins, “It’s now 0200. A fine time for a guy to be writing to his fiance. There’s a cheery fire in the gas grate. It’s cold as a dog’s nose outside. I know, ’cause I just lit the fire and I just came in from the great out-of-doors.”

He was delighted to hear Dot’s voice tonight, but even happier to hear her laugh. He discerns that she’s not as unhappy as she was a few weeks ago, and he predicts she’ll be feeling even better as she gets to know her new situation better. He understands her naturally ebullient nature, I think.

He’s nearly done with his original list of things to accomplish while on leave, but more things have been added. Tonight, Burke’s girlfriend Edie came over to the house with some pictures to show his folks. While she was there, his old pal from Shaw, Bob Cunningham dropped by. The two old friends had lots to tell each other about their time in the war and discovered they’d been to many of the same places. Before long, the doorbell rang again and revealed another high school chum, Bill Mather. He and Bob had not seen each other since graduation, so now the three young men had lots to catch up on.

Eventually both Bob and Edie left and Bill and Dart decided to go for a ride. They ended up at Manner’s hamburger joint and had a late night snack while they talked some more, until nearly 1:30. “Sinful, isn’t it, to sit around talking like that? Well, maybe not for Bill and me, but for you and me it would be sinful to sit and talk when we could be punctuating our paragraphs with kisses!”

“Goodnight, my Darling. How can I ever live without you until my discharge? Loving you, knowing you’re around, thrilling to your touch, and the proud feeling I get when I see you or think of you have become an inseparable part of my life.”

Dot writes, “Hey, Sailor! You sounded so cheerful and happy over the phone tonight it made me feel that way too. Gee, but your voice is soothing. It’s so gentle and yet so masculine. Thanks for calling and for talking so long. And congratulations on gettnig the article in the P.D. Who knows, maybe you’ll have some of your articles in there some day.”

She asks him what made the Navy so generous all of a sudden, but I don’t know what that means. Perhaps some news on early discharges? Anyway, she hopes they’ll decide he doesn’t need to go overseas again.

She can’t wait to see him one last time this weekend before he returns to Norfolk. She’ll make plans now to tell him exactly how much she loves him.