Postmark May 5, 1902 [ A month before the wedding]
My dearest,
There are so many things to write that I hardly know where to begin and will know still less whereto stop. I do not see what has gotten into the mails for it has been oftener than not that I have sent your letters at eleven o’clock and you have received them at four. Yesterday we went in the city in the morning and went to the new dressmaker whom the other one recommended. She took the measure and we planned the gown, and mama is to go in on Wednesday to have the linings fitted. So we are just where we were six weeks ago, and before this dress comes home we must do lots of odd things, for when the dress does come all other things must be done as there will be no time after it. I shall be very busy this week, so you must not think I am neglecting my little boy if I do not write three times. I must sew in the daytime, and in the evenings I have lots of letters to write and receipts to copy and music to sort over, and a million things to do. I shall be so glad when I do not have to make every minute count. I seem to have gotten off the track. When we left the dressmaker’s we went to Baris, there to look at dinner sets in the remaining [?] store. We found one in violets for forty-two. Which was the prettiest we have seen anywhere for that price and another for fifty-nine something, which was tiny pink roses and lovely7, and which was also the prettiest by far of anything near the price anywhere, and I shall probably have one of them. Then we went to Meekin’s and selected the brass bed. It is plain and very handsome and I am tickled to pieces, and what do you think? After ordering the bed, mama also ordered a hair mattress of the finest grade which also cost a pretty penny. How is that? I will tell you about the spring bed later, as it is too long for this letter. Now I will give you the list of things which I selected, subject to correction. The dining table is round and fifty-two (or four) inch, claw and ball feet and thirty-five dollars. The chairs I did not select until you come. One set you saw, and another set equally pretty but three dollars less for the six, is the other choice. The sideboard you have seen. The bookcase is wax finish, double doors of leaded glass for twenty-one dollars. One similar, but smaller, and with one door, is fifteen, but I think the books we would have would fill it and as it is the only one we will ever have, I want some room left for future use. The parlor table is the round spider legged one for sixteen, if it is firm enough. The little table for a window is very pretty and mahogany for four and a half. The bureau in maple is thirty one fifty and a beauty and two maple chairs one a rocker for three and a quarter and four and a quarter. That completes the list, and I left out music [?] chair and cabinet for we can get along without them and can select them later if we wish. My selections came to one hundred fifteen and fifty cents without dining chairs which will be at least fifty more. Then there are two floor coverings, and we cannot get a nice parlor carpet such as you want for less than fifty dollars. I think you must be mistaken about your present parlor carpet for this tapestry one cost thirty-two. Our parlor draperies will cost at least five dollars a pair and the set at least eighty. So there you have two hundred to add to one hundred fifteen. Then there will be a spring for the brass bed, a mattress for the guest room, a covering for the dining room floor, a chair for the the den ( for we have only two) a stove and a refrigerator. So it seems we had better omit the music cabinet and chair until we see what money we have given us. Now about having the new furniture. What you say is true, but I do not like the idea of moving that nice furniture after it has been unpacked and by someone not accustomed to doing it. If things are scratched we can’t help ourselves, and if they are unpacked and set up they will be fixed up if marred in any way, and it seems so much better to have them set up where they will stay. Then they will have to be paid for if delivered now, and you will be able to leave half the amount in the bank if they are not. Of course it would be nice to have them but I think we would enjoy them more to have them new when we go to the other house which I hope will be before cold weather, for we never could keep warm there on account of the stairs if for no other reason. Has anything more been said about rent/ I should not be willing to pay twelve dollars in cold weather, for the house would be too inconvenient with a detached kitchen and well and all that space overhead in the old kitchen. Get your ides in order so you could speak of it if the opportunity is given. My suit has come and looks very nice, but the skirt binding is about three inches too large and cannot be made small enough without spoiling the back of the skirt. How in the world is all that “truck” to grow in that small space? Did you cover the sweet peas again? I wonder if anything has been done in our garden. If the wedding ring is all right I would like it engraved where I had mine measured and where I got your chain and locket. I am quite sure the mover included his team, at least I understand it. Do tell me if the architect came and the result. I don’t [sic] know what to say about the boxes for my gowns. I dislike to have them folded so small. She will only just get them done so why not you write her how you will get them on Friday the sixteenth?
I have not looked at refrigerators at all. This letter is mostly business, but I love you as much as if I had told you lots of nice things. It is so long I cannot read it, but hope I have made myself plain. I love you and two weeks more and you will be here. With al my love
Your Evangeline.
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