Oh, Mina dear, I can't help crying, and you must excuse this letter being all blotted. Being proposed to is all very nice and all that sort of thing, but it isn't at all a happy thing when you have to see a poor fellow, whom you know loves you honestly, going away and looking all broken hearted, and to know that, no matter what he may say at the moment, you are passing out of his life. My dear, I must stop here at present, I feel so miserable, though I am so happy.

It is now evening. Arthur has just gone, and I feel in better spirits than when I left off, so I can go on telling you about the day.

Well, my dear, number Two came after lunch. He is such a nice fellow, an American from Texas, and he looks so young and so fresh that it seems almost impossible that he has been to so many places and had such adventures. I sympathize with poor Desdemona when she had such a stream of stories poured in her ear. I suppose that we women are such cowards that we think a man will save us from our fears, and we marry him. I know now what I would do if I were a man and wanted to make a girl love me. No, I don't, for there was Mr. Morris telling us his stories, and Arthur never told any, and yet ...

Vocabulary:

Blotted: Where water has smeared the ink
Passing out: Here it means 'going'
Spirits: Mood, feeling
Left off: Stopped temporarily
Desdemona: A character in Shakespeare's Othello