How do you pronounce your surname? "esk-weej"? or how? Is it a German name?
If you can do "Doublets," with how many links do you turn KATH into LEEN?
With kind remembrances to your mother, I am
My dear Kathleen,--Some months ago I heard, from my cousin, May Wilcox, that you were engaged to be married. And, ever since, I have cherished the intention of writing to offer my congratulations. Some might say, "Why not write _at once?"_ To such unreasoning creatures, the obvious reply is, "When you have bottled some peculiarly fine Port, do you usually begin to drink it _at once?"_ Is not that a beautiful simile? Of course, I need not remark that my congratulations are like fine old Port--only finer, and _older!_
Accept, my dear old friend, my _heartiest_ wishes for happiness, of all sorts and sizes, for yourself, and for him whom you have chosen as your other self. And may you love one another with a love second only to your love for God--a love that will last through bright days and dark days, in sickness and in health, through life and through death.
A few years ago I went, in the course of about three months, to the weddings of three of my old child-friends. But weddings are not very exhilarating scenes for a miserable old bachelor; and I think you'll have to excuse me from attending _yours_.
However, I have so far concerned myself in it that I actually _dreamed_ about it a few nights ago! I dreamed that you had had a photograph done of the wedding-party, and had sent me a copy of it. At one side stood a group of ladies, among whom I made out the faces of Dolly and Ninty; and in the foreground, seated in a boat, were two people, a gentleman and a lady I _think_ (could they have been the bridegroom and the bride?) engaged in the natural and usual occupation for a riverside picnic--pulling a Christmas cracker! I have no idea what put such an idea into my head. _I_ never saw crackers used in such a scene!
I hope your mother goes on well. With kindest regards to her and your father, and love to your sisters--and to yourself too, if HE doesn't object!--I am,
P.S.--I never give wedding-presents; so please regard the enclosed as an _unwedding_ present.
My dear Kathleen,--Many thanks for the photo of yourself and your _fiancé_, which duly reached me January 23, 1892. Also for a wedding-card, which reached me August 28, 1892. Neither of these favours, I fear, was ever acknowledged. Our only communication since, has been, that on December 13, 1892, I sent you a biscuit-box adorned with "Looking-Glass" pictures. This _you_ never acknowledged; so I was properly served for my negligence. I hope your little daughter, of whose arrival Mrs. Eschwege told me in December, 1893, has been behaving well? How quickly the years slip by! It seems only yesterday that I met, on the railway, a little girl who was taking a sketch of Oxford!