Julia and I received your congratulations with pleasure, my only regret being that I cannot return them in kind.
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"Gather roses while ye may, Old Time's a-flying." |
A word to the wise, etc., and let me speedily have occasion to felicitate you in like manner.
Your friend and well-wisher,
John Myers.
Mr. Richard Doe,
Georgetown, D.C.
It should be mentioned here that while one congratulates a gentleman upon his engagement, or marriage, and may congratulate his parents upon the same occasion, it is inadmissible to congratulate a lady on a similar event, or to extend the congratulations to her parents. Well-bred mothers have been known to resent this solecism keenly. You may, and indeed are expected to, offer to her, and her parents, all manner of good wishes for future happiness, but be sure not to congratulate.
Almost any success, or pleasant happiness in life, may be made the subject of a congratulatory letter, but a multiplicity of forms is unnecessary here.
Proposals, Engagements, “Naming the Day,”
and other letters of this description are important affairs that may all be transacted through the medium of correspondence, but it is to be hoped that a matter so closely personal will quicken the imagination and inspire the pen of the dullest swain.