interest in yours; but will you allow me to cultivate your
acquaintance in the hope or being able to win your regard in
the course of time? Petitioning for a few lines in reply.

I remain, dear Miss Searles,
Yours devotedly,
E.C. NICKS.

Miss E. Searles,
Waterford, Maine.


_16.--Proposing Marriage._

Wednesday, October 20th, 1894

Dearest Etta:

The delightful hours I have passed in your society have left
an impression on my mind that is altogether indelible,
and cannot be effaced even by time itself. The frequent
opportunities I have possessed, of observing the thousand acts
of amiability and kindness which mark the daily tenor of your
life, have ripened my feelings of affectionate regard into
a passion at once ardent and sincere until I have at length
associated my hopes of future happiness with the idea of you
as a life partner, in them. Believe me, dearest Etta, this is
no puerile fancy, but the matured results of a long and warmly
cherished admiration of your many charms of person and mind.
It is love--pure devoted love, and I feel confident that your