s happening--and said, "Oh, Virginia, not so soon!"
He told me afterwards that, of course, he'd always thought we'd have
children after a while, before we were middle-aged, but that he had
wanted to stay like this for at least five or ten years. When the baby
comes, he says he supposes he'll like it, but that he can't honestly say
he is glad. It's funny how frightened he is, because I am not the least
bit so. All women must expect to have children when they marry, and if
God makes them suffer for it, it must be because it is best that they
should. Perhaps they wouldn't love their babies so much if they got them
easily. I never think of the pain a minute. It all seems so beautiful
and sacred to me that I can't understand why Oliver isn't enraptured
just as I am. To think of a new life starting into the world from me--a
life that is half mine and half Oliver's, and one that would never be at
all except for our love. The baby will seem from the very first minute
to be our love made into flesh. I don't see how a woman who feels this
could waste a thought on what she has to suffer.

I am so glad you are going to send me a nurse from Dinwiddie, because
I'm afraid I could never get one here that I could trust. The servant
Oliver got me is no earthly account, and I still do as much of the
cooking as I can. The house doesn't look nearly so nice as it used to,
but the doctor tells me that I mustn't sweep, so I only do the light
dusting. I sew almost all the time, and I've already finished the little
slips. To-day I'm going to cut out the petticoats. I couldn't tell from
the pattern you sent whether they fasten in front or in the back. There
are no places for buttonholes. Do you use safety pins to fasten them
with? The embroidery is perfectly lovely, and will make the sweetest
trimming. I am using pink for the basket because Oliver and I both hope
the baby will be a girl. If it is, I shall name her after you, of
course, and I want her to be just exactly like you. Oliver says he can't
understand why anybody ever wants a boy--girls are so much nicer. But
then he insists that if she isn't born with blue eyes, he will send her
to the orphanage.

I am trying to do just as you tell me to, and to be as careful as I
possibly can. The doctor thinks I've stayed indoors too much since I
came here, so I go out for a little walk with Oliver every night. I am
so afraid that somebody will see me that I really hate to go out at all,
and always c