An exuberant Dot begins her letter with “My Darling Dart, I began this letter over again just so I could call you ‘Darling’. Boy! Do you know how good you sounded to me? You couldn’t, but it was mighty good. Say, notice how I’ve gotten over being tongue-tied? I talked lots tonight, even though my heart was in my mouth.”

She is so eager to think he might be able to get to Greenwich on a 72-hour liberty, even before his long leave. Might he get there before September 1 so that he could meet Gordon? She so wants her two favorite boys to meet each other, but she’s afraid to pray for such a thing lest she wear out her welcome with God, who’s answered so many of her prayers lately.

Now that they’ve discussed the idea for making their engagement announcement, she’s counting on Dart to come up with some clever way of saying it. (With the hindsight I’ve been granted on this topic, I already know the cute scheme they’ve cooked up, but naturally I won’t ruin the surprise here.)

Mr. Goldstein is on vacation from the Young Men’s department at Franklin Simons and Dot has had her hands full in his absence. Today they got merchandise from NY and Dot had to check it all in and find places for it to go. “What did we get? Well, you probably wouldn’t have asked that question, but since I’m writing this letter, I can have you ask anything I want. We got 32 snowsuits, 12 overcoats, 12 fur mittens, 40 leather helmets, 32 undershirts, 168 ties, and countless other junk.”

She mentions that tomorrow is a big day at the Chamberlain house, but doesn’t say why. Is that the day Gordon gets home? She thanks him again for calling and for buying her the silk stockings. (How did he get his hands on those, just two days after the war ended?)