Oh, Mina dear, I can't help crying, so you must excuse me for getting this letter all blotted. Being proposed to is very nice of course. But it isn't a happy thing when you have to see a poor fellow, someone who you know loves you honestly, going away and looking all broken-hearted. And I know that, no matter what he may say at the moment, I am 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 I was when I left off writing to you. So now I can go on telling you about the day.

Well, proposal number Two came after lunch. He is an American from Texas, a nice fellow. 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 what scares us, and so we marry him. Now I know what I would do if I were a man and wanted to make a girl love me. No, I don't, because Mr. Morris told us his stories, and Arthur never told any, and yet ...

Vocabulary:

Blotted: Where water has smeared the ink
Passing out: Here it means 'going'
Miserable: Sad and upset
Spirits: Mood, feeling
Left off: Stopped temporarily
Desdemona: A character in Shakespeare's Othello
Cowards: People who are scared of everything