Tighter by Adele Griffin

$8.99

Paperback

Growing up in a creaky old house, I was always fascinated by the attic stockpiles of family letters, scrapbooks, and albums.

But nothing was as interesting to me as this letter from Mr. Ronald Paton, dashed off in December 1893.

There is a box. There is a thwarter (M. Dana). And there is yearning.

But is it a proposal? What do you think?

transcription:

263 Clarendon Street

I never realized my own stupidity full until a few days ago when I started to get you something for Christmas. I didn’t want to get you candy or flowers for I was presumptuous enough to wish that you might have something lying about that might, at intervals but for a long time, remind you that in the “Fall” of ’93, you made a Scottish friend who would do a good deal for you, who always will remember you with the kindest feeling — Who looks forward to meeting you often in the next two-score years or so, and who always will look back to “October ’93″ and wish that the train through the Berkshire Hills had been longer far.

I had the litte box in my pocket when I called tonight, but I could not present it through the medium of M. Dana.

Believe me (unint.)

Sincerely yours,

Ronald Noel Paton

Dec ’93