Dart had hoped to buy both a new suit and a sport coat with trousers, but he settled on a new plan today. He bought a swell new sport coat and several pairs of trousers. The suit will have to wait for another time. The beautiful camel hair jacket is hanging in his closet with tags attached to prevent him from wearing it before his trip east in just eight weeks.

His dentist, Dr. O’Leary, filled two holes in Dart’s head today. Dart likes him, and was pleased to learn that Dr. O’Leary is happy to fit another Peterson into his schedule when the need arises after June.

The staff meeting tonight was a pleasant one. They accepted very few submissions for publication, but Dart’s  character sketch of Mr. Schmidt was accepted in it’s re-written form.

“I haven’t answered your letter with the kiss in it yet. I guess I can’t do a proper job of answering the kiss until I get a little more response than just kissing lips on paper brings. When I close my eyes and put a couple of fingers behind the lip marks, I can almost feel our bodies pressing hungrily together.”

He’s quite impressed with their growing pile of gifts she writes about, and asks her to thank Aunt Edna for him. “I’m anxious to get double use out of those double sheets. (Double meaning there, but don’t double up over it, except with me,)”

He assumes she still has her job after  she quit working in the rain. He sure doesn’t blame her for not wanting to continue working in sloshy clothes.

“Sometimes after letters like last night’s are mailed, I think about how lonesome they make you, and wish I hadn’t mailed them. I don’t want to deliberately make you blue. I love you too much for that.”

#          #          #

Dot’s small, neat handwriting certainly allows her to squeeze a lot of news into a four-page letter!

As delighted as she is that time before the wedding is moving at a rapid pace, she fears there’ll be too little time to whip the house into shape before the big day. “I fear it will be another case of the painters leaving by the back door as the guests are arriving at the front door. That actually happened at Harriet’s wedding!” (Except in today’s case, the “painters” are both brides and one of the grooms!)

She awoke today feeling punk, and the weather was pretty much the same. Although she might have pushed herself to go to work, her mother felt it would be unwise for her to walk around all day in the rain. Even though she didn’t earn any cash today, she didn’t waste her time. She made two sets of curtains for the living room. She realizes she promised Dart she’d make curtains for their apartment, but since there’s no reception scheduled to happen there any time soon,  does he mind too much if she sews for 115 Mason Street first?

She needs to check with Dr. Knowlton today to confirm that Connecticut will accept blood test from Ohio for use on a marriage license. If they don’t, Dart will have to get to Greenwich 10 days prior to the wedding. She can’t understand how Betty and Gordon decided on a Thursday to marry on Saturday, and were able to get it all done legally. She’ll let him know what she finds out about the blood tests.

Today Mrs. Vessie gave Dot and Eleanor a copy of “The Brides’ Magazine.” She also told the girls not to think the gifts she’s already given them are wedding gifts; she wouldn’t dream of excluding the grooms like that. She’s an artist, and she plans to paint a portrait of each bride to give to her groom as a wedding gift. Dot has no idea when either bride will have time to sit for a portrait between now and June 20, but she’ll let Mrs. Vessie worry about that!

“By the way, darling, there was an article in the magazine that I thought might interest you. “A Gift for the Bride” – Why not give her a string of pearls, a town car, a diamond wrist watch or some jeweled clips? Yes, why not? To save you the trouble of trying to decide which of that list you should give me, let me inform you now that the town car would be fine. Think you could manage to squeeze that out of your budget? Oh, I forgot to mention that the article began ‘If money is no object.’ But when there is no money, there can be no object. We’ll let it go this time, but let me warn you, young man, by the next time you get married, I want you to have sufficient funds to give your bride at least a diamond wrist watch!” She likes how the magazine caters to those in the lower income brackets with their budget-conscious choices like diamond watches.

She continues, “Golly, life must be an awful bore to those young couples who start out already owning a town car. By the time they work their way up to a city car, what thrill is left? I mean, how many cars you need?”

Why doesn’t she keep her job right up to the last day?! She’ll tell him why. First, the canvassing will be done before then. Second, his parents will be in town and she wants to spend as much time with them as possible. “And in the third place, I just plain don’t want to in the first place.”

She asks Dart to make two promises: First, that he won’t write to her during exam week, other than maybe a postcard to say he’s still alive. Second, that he will not talk about his grades on their honeymoon. She hates to hear him run himself down with dire predictions of failure. These seem like reasonable requests to me.

Norman has moved in with the Chamberlains temporarily. His roommate/nephew has contracted the measles, and Norm was looking for a safe haven.

There’s a cool spring breeze coming through her window and she’d love nothing more than to lie in his arms as they drift off to sleep amid a symphony of nature’s sounds.