Boston, 25th, 12 PM
Well! here I am, with only the little picture to kiss when I could just as well have had the blessed original in my arms at this moment as any other way.1 Nasby broke down & closed out the Rutland, Vt., Society, & that relieved me & the rest of going there2—& that gave me two idle days following Hartford, which [ I’d ] ‸I could‸ have spent in New York if I had known you would be there, but somehow I had gathered the impression that you wouldn’t be there till the latter part of the week. I do not really believe you are ther in New York yet—for I telegraphed your father today & got no reply. But I suppose you will be there shortly.
I got a letter from you in Jamaica Plains—isn’t that the one? I have written them at Rutland to forward my letters here. If I had only known anything about the [ may map ], there never would have been any necessity of your writing me anywhere but Boston, up to this time. I turn up here every day or two. Don’t know how it will be in the future—will send you the new list to-morrow.
I don’t see how I ever could have been so stupid as not to telegraph Elmira from Hartford—only, I hadn’t the remotest possible idea that you were going down the first of the week. I am just as grieved as if I had lost a month right out of the middle of my life. Even though I live to see you day & night for many years, I still have suffered loss, for I cannot get back those two days—& I might have been with my darling. Well, let’s be cheerful, anyway, old sweetheart, you precious darling, you blessed dream & blessed reality—let us find no fault with circumstances that may have been ordered by Providence—how can we know.
It is midnight—Billings has just gone—had a quiet, pleasant, conversational evening. Showed me his photographs—has two enchanting daughters, both married & mothers.3
[BED]! That is the idea now. Bless you sweetheart you are so lovely in the little picture tonight. I shall have to take it to bed with me so that I can look at it the first thing in the morning. I kiss you, darling & bless you.
Sam.
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Miss Olivia L. Langdon | St. Nicholas Hotel | New York. | [flourish] [return address:] [ boston lyceum ]bureau, no. 20 bromfield st. boston. [postmarked:] [ boston mass.][ nov. 26. 2 p.m.] [docketed:] [ st. nicholas hotel ]new york [nov 27 1869 ] [docketed by OLL:] 148th
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
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Previous publication:
L3, 409–410; LLMT, 360, brief paraphrase.
Provenance:
see Samossoud Collection, p. 586.
Emendations and textual notes:
I’d • [false ascenders/descenders; possibly ’I’ll’]
may map • mayp
BED • [block capitals, not underscored]
boston lyceum
•
[o]
ston lyceum
[torn]
boston mass.
•
[b]
n
[
]
[badly
inked]
nov. 26. 2. p.m.
•
[v]. 26. [2]
p
[
]
m. [badly inked]
st. nicholas hotel
•
[
]
otel
[badly
inked]
nov 27 1869 •
[v] 27 186[9]
[badly
inked]