Dart has just returned from the wedding reception for Al Frobush’s sister, Evelyn. He hasn’t even stopped to change out of his fancy duds before he starts to write to Dot.
Unless he hears otherwise, he’ll be at her house around 7:00 PM on Friday to help her pack up her things. He reminds her to bring her tennis racquet so they can hit a few balls during her time in Cleveland. He predicts it’ll be too cold for swimming while she’s with him, according to the weather forecasts. “Just goes to prove the old saying that Ohio has only two seasons: winter and August. (More fodder for your cannon which you keep aimed at our fair state.)”
If she hasn’t already reserved her seat to Erie, they can do that from the East Cleveland station when she gets here. Then he asks what day she needs to go back and says he hopes he’ll be able to accompany her and help her get established. I’m a little confused about all this: Is he asking when she returns to Kent for summer session? Or is he hoping to return to Greenwich with her? I trust all will be made clear in future letters.
He can’t wait until they’re living together in a more permanent situation, without her having to change addresses so often. The newlywed couple whose wedding he attended today are starting their life together with more handicaps than he and Dot will have. They’re living in a tiny little room and the groom has to complete some high school classes this summer! He remarks about how happy they looked, though. Dart predicts that at their own wedding, once they get past the nerves, they’ll be the happiest looking couple anyone has ever seen.
The topic of happiness brings him to an observation he’s made recently. Has she ever noticed that when they’re together and talking about how happy they are, it’s not a “momentary, singing, heel-clicking, kind of happiness” they mention? “Usually, it’s the kind of happy awareness that comes from anticipating a wonderful gift, or from a sureness that each of us is satisfied beyond the fondest hopes of our respective dreams. It’s not the fleeting happiness of good humor over a soon-to-be-forgotten bit of chance. It’s a happiness that’s true through good humor and bad, through all waking hours and many sleeping ones. It’s a sober kind of happiness that comes from being sure of many things. We always state our happiness at being in love, or being engaged, in sober sentences. They come from the heart, the mind, and the emotions, Dear. I hope we’ll always be happy like that, as well as happy in the other way. One goes with the other, when we are together.”
He remarks that this could be the last letter for a while, and the last long letter for a long time. Once he’s started classes, he still hopes he’ll take the time to write long ones, because he’ll be missing her so much.
Dot had expressed some concern over El being their designated chaperone at Sunapee in September because she thought the protocol was that the chaperone was to be married. (Does anyone still talk this way in the 21st century?) Dart assures her that if Ruth Chamberlain approves of an unmarried woman as a chaperone, then he’s certain it’s quite on the up and up. He reminds her, though, that they will have to chaperone themselves. “If we can control ourselves, we don’t need one; and if we can’t, we’d find means to get around all the chaperoning a dozen 63-year-old busybodies could lay onto us. A chaperone is necessary for appearances, of course.”
Once again he talks about a line they nearly crossed the last time they were together. They have found their limit to be much more restrictive than they had hoped, but Dart holds himself responsible and will need to exert greater effort if they are to avoid taking the next step. He hints there is something they need to discuss – that he wants to make clear, but which is too delicate to be discussed in a letter.
In her letter she accuses Dart of overestimating her, which only serves to prove that he loves her. He has noticed the same thing in her, about him. He knows she has faults, but he wouldn’t love her as much if she didn’t. Although it’s likely that some disillusionment will come for both of them when they’re married, he thinks they should set a goal of trying not to disillusion each other. “So those things which we observe in each other to be nearest our ideals are the things which bind us together in deep love for each other.”
He loved her letter from Monday night, including the promise of all her love for as long as he needs it and wants it. “You know how perishable promises of love are, Dot. For that reason, I’ve made few promises. But if I were in the habit of making promises, I’d give you every word I have that as long as you are affectionate, and crave affection; as long as you want and need my love; as long as I have love for anyone, you will be the object of it all. The time I have reserved for making promises is the time we shall be standing together, and I make a promise to you, to a minister, to the world, and to God that I intend to be your husband, and the good one that you deserve.”
He proclaims her Monday letter to be “wonderfully analytical, well stated and well founded.” He adds that although she doesn’t write such things as often as he, when she does, she has something worthwhile to say and she says it well.
The letter ends with his prayer, “May God grant that we have the courage, the determination, the common sense, and the incalculable other things that help people in the lives together.”