Under the date on Dart’s letter, he writes, as usual, the number of days until the wedding (40), but then he adds “less than 960 hours.” He’s not too eager, is he?

He mentions a book that has claimed much of his time in the last few days. It’s called “The Triumph of the Egg,” by Sherwood Anderson. He says it’s a beautiful treatment of the frustration felt by people living in small towns.

Today was lovely, followed by an equally beautiful night. His window is open and all of the typical 3:00 AM sounds are making him even lonelier for her than he already was.

He is compelled to write one of his long, lonely, intimate letters tonight. He’ll start with the part of her recent letter about her “visitor” being due around the time of their wedding and honeymoon. He wants to assure her, that aside from the fact that she’ll be uncomfortable, it won’t bother him that much if they were “unable” on their first few nights of marriage. As long as they are married and can sleep in the same bed, several nights of forced abstinence seems like it may bind them together even more closely. He’ll have waited a long time, and is willing to wait until it will be right for her.

For a long time I’ve dreamed of sleeping with you … of having you close to me, and being close to you; so close that we can breathe upon each other; so close that every motion one of makes can be felt by the other; so close that even our heart beats caress each other. I’ll be satisfied those first nights if all we can do is lie under the same blanket. I want to be able to pull your head to my chest and bury my face in your hair. I want to grasp the firmness of your body into my arms until we both quiver from the sheer joy of being together.

Further more, he hopes they will always be able to enjoy each other – not just with physical intimacy, but also with mental and spiritual closeness.  “I want a complete, never-failing understanding. I want my love for you to be as unselfish in its devotion as yours for me. I want complete physical intercourse after our many times of mental and spiritual intercourse.”

He also hopes he can be a gentleman enough not to ask to see her with the lights on. He admits he dearly wants to, but her wants her to feel as comfortable as possible on their first nights together. I am deeply touched by that statement. It is so sweet and dear and melancholy that with all the time together, and the depth of their love for each other, that they have not shared this intimacy. It’s more precious still that he is ultimately more concerned about her comfort than he is with satisfying his own desires.  What a remarkable young couple.

He’s eager to hear what she learns from Dr. Shaw. He suspects the doctor will tell her about a particular “female device” that Homer told him about. He suspects Dot will not be interested in using something like that. Does she think they should see the doctor together? He feels they’d be better prepared if they did.

“This is all for tonight, my Darling. I know it’s been a hard letter for you to read, but I hope you don’t mind too much. When my lonesomeness piles up inside me this way, there doesn’t seem to be anything else to do and you’re the only one I can write/talk to about it. After this, do I need to say I love you? Well, I do.

#          #          #

Dot warns that this letter won’t be worth the paper it’s written on (she was wrong about that), but she had to write to tell him that she loves him more tonight than she’s ever loved him in her whole life. She thought he deserved to know.

The problem is she loves him too much to be of any good to anybody. All she wants is to be alone with him, in spirit, anyway. Last night she came upstairs to be alone and to think about him. She daydreamed about all their long drives together, like the trips back to Kent and that drive out to his Uncle Guy’s lake property. (Sound familiar?) “My body tingles when I remember those times, or better yet, think about us and our future.”

He knows her well enough to know that she can get very emotional. She doesn’t want to cry, but she’s feeling as bad as he did that night when he prayed in his living room. She wishes she’d not been so selfish when she encouraged him not to teach that Sunday school class. He’d make a great teacher, just has he has taught her so much about faith, with his actions and his words. She hopes they’ll never take such things for granted.