Elmhurst Dear Margaret Ball:
I have wished more than I can say for a whole year to write you a few words. for I thank you so much for your gracious hospitality to us all - your mother's class-mates - of that time. Then it was and always will be a sense of a good thing coming on our way like a fragrance that never fails. And thank you for my part of it in particular. I thought I should tell you at once how much I enjoyed it but I couldnt [sic] though I've written many a letter to you in my thoughts.
I shall always be glad of the little time with you in seeing your new rooms and your belongings in them - specially am I glad to have seen the cherished fittings that your father had made for you with his own hands and I know how much you care for them. All such thus [?] fathers and mothers are near to me for the sake of my own beloved and your evident dear companionship with yours gave me a strong sense of fellowship with you. 'Twas good in you to show them to us and tell us about them. It was a thoughtful kindness in you to remember how hungry we would be for the mountains and to plan that sight for us. I had dreaded very much to go to the college because I had not regained enough strength to feel sure I could go through without having to make care or trouble for somebody and I doubt if I should have ventured but for my great desire to be with you. Beside loving you for your mother's sake, I love you also for dear Miss Bowers to whom you were so dear. She often wrote me of you and wished so much to have us know [?] you.
I'm sending two little spoons of different fashion which I hope you can sometimes use for I would like to have you use some little souvenir from me of the happy time you made for us.
I wish I had not been obliged to hold myself to such quietness that I know I couldn't seem appreciative but I did think a great deal of your goodness, dear girl and of the being with you.
Indeed, I do really think I should remember all your attainments and your honored and dignified position of which I'm glad and proud and refrain from greeting you in this informal fashion. But you are nearest as your mother's child and Miss Bowers dear girl. I hope if the future holds more earthly years for me I may see more of you[.]
[...] with my love for your mother and your own self
Frances H CloseJune 5 1919
Croton Falls
Westchester Co New York