South Hadley June 18, 1894.It is Monday morning, dear. I am sitting in Mrs. Jenkins's [?] little parlor, & in an hour shall go over to the college to meet you & be with you till dinner time. I write this letter now so that it may be already in Paris ready to greet you when you arrive. Perhaps a letter written several days later would still arrive in Paris before you, and that would be better; but I write now because I want to be sure that you find your lover's welcome. A few days ago, dearie, I sent a letter to Boulogne but I fear it may not reach you. Yet you will not have minded very much? It is but a short time between Boulogne & Paris.
I hope this will find you greatly refreshed & rested, darling, & very ready & eager to enjoy what is before you in these two months. Don't work too hard in taking care of your party, and get away from them as much as you can, so as to be alone, & relieved of the hurry & chatter amid which you have lived all this year, & from which you need a rest.
I hoe you will find the "Walks in Paris" of some use, dar. I tho't a long time about what I should give you on your departure. I wanted to give you something which you would need to use constantly, so that you might be often reminded of your lover, so that he might seem almost to be your companion. I meant to write your name in it myself, I like to do that, perhaps I shall if I see the book again before I go. And I will write the name well over toward the left side of the page so that some day I may add to your name my own, which some day shall be yours as well.
It was last night, dear, that we sat in the little house on Prospect & talked together in the moonlight. Do you remember? When I walked home alone afterward I was pretty wretched. It was as if there were an awful lack of something, but that something was altogether unknown, or at best very dim. Life seemed somehow meaningless. I wasn't discouraged, nor exhausted, but there seemed no aim in life & so no glory. I wished that I could take you & go away from these people & places, & work & see that which I need, if haply [sic] I might find it. And yet perhaps that is altogether a mistake. Perhaps it is in those people & places that are most familiar to us, in the common daily life wherever it be, that we can find the Eternal. Perhaps so long as we forget the present & scorn it, & strain our eyes to find some fancied glory in the future, our life will be one long fruitless chase. And
then oyet, perhaps our life is meant to be just that, a fruitless pursuit. And its glory? Why, it is in the pursuit alone. There is only one toil in the world, that is not pain & disappointment, & ruined hopes; it is only "the unlit lamp & the ungirt loin"There, darling, do not fear, it [?] is no longer with me as it used to be. Though it would look as meaningless & dark as now [?], I will not despair & sit groaning. If the universe be a mere hell even, surely it were still better to face it with quiet courage than to shrink & shriek. We will keep our courage, dearest, at every turn will will [sic] press closer our intertwined fingers, look with a
deephappier smile into each other's eyes. Whether or no[t] there be any reward whose anticipation or experience can give us joy, we have at least the possibility of going on together, and is that not joy enough? Do not be troubled, Elizabeth, my darling, no life can be bitter wherein there are patience & courage. And the peace we long for? I think only that peace can be of worth which is wrung from ceaseless strife. And we have faith still, dearie, faith that the world has a meaning, tho' we see it not faith that behind the world of sense sits God, the God after whom we thirst. Come, my wife, let us seek Him together, our life & our love will be but poor mean fragments without Him. With Him, they will have the beauty of the Eternal. It seems right, as you say, that love is a part of Him. Yet for me they are still separate. When I know Him better, they will be one? Then be patient, dear, & trust me till I do know Him better & learn that He & you & love are all one. I will be true.All is well, dearest, I will not fail you. Put away this letter now with the assurance that I shall soon be your strength & comfort. Go about the day's work, on to the night's sleep with the sweet consciousness of God's & your lover's presence.
Remember me kindly to Miss Hartley & Mrs. Hynes -
Thy Lover
George