September 18, 1923.
Dear Helen,
The announcement of your engagement to Robert Haines is a delightful surprise. He is, as we all know, a splendid chap.
I am so happy that this great happiness has come to you. I hope that I may hear all about it, and with best wishes to you both, I am
Affectionately yours,
Ruth Evans.
On the subject of engagements, perhaps the following letter from Charles Lamb to Fanny Kelly, and her reply, will be of interest—though the unarduous and somewhat prosaic tone of Elia's proposal of marriage—beautifully expressed as it is—is hardly to be recommended as a model calculated to bring about the desired result!
Dear Miss Kelly:
We had the pleasure, pain I might better call it, of seeing you last night in the new play. It was a most consummate piece of acting, but what a task for you to undergo! At a time when your heart is sore from real sorrow it has given rise to a train of thinking, which I cannot suppress.
Would to God you were released from this way of life; that you could bring your mind to consent to take your lot with us, and throw off forever the whole burden of your profession. I neither expect nor wish you to take notice of this which I am writing, in your present over occupied and hurried state—but to think of it at your leisure. I have quite income enough, if that were all, to justify for me making such a proposal, with what I may call even a handsome provision for my survivor. What you possess of your own would naturally be appropriated to those, for whose sakes chiefly you have made so many hard sacrifices. I am not so foolish as not to know that I am a most unworthy match for such a one as you, but you have for years been a principal object in my mind. In many a sweet assumed character I have learned to love you, but simply as F. M. Kelly I love you better than them all. Can you quit these shadows of existence, and come and be a reality to us? Can you leave off harassing yourself to please a thankless multitude, who know nothing of you, and begin at last to live to yourself and your friends?