fancy a bucket?

Snuggled up right now.

Nathaniel Hawthorne to his beloved Sophia Peabody in 1850

To Sophia
Unspeakably Belovedest
Thy letter has just been handed to me. It was most comfortable to me, because it gives such apicture of thy life with the children. I would see the whole family of my heart before. My eyes, and could hear you all talking together...
The other night, I dreamt that I was at Newton,in a room with thee and with several people; and thou tookst occasion to announce that thou hadst now ceased to be my wife, and hadst taken another husband. Thou madest this intelligence known with such perfect composure and sang froid, - not particualrly addressing me, but the company generally, _ that it benumbed my thoughts and feelings, so that I had nothing to say. But, hereupon, some woman who was there present, informed the company that, in this state of affairs, having ceased to be thy husband, I had become hers, and, turning to me, very coolly inquired whether she or I should write to inform my motherof the new arrangement!
How the children were to be divided, I know not.

I only know that my heart suddenly broke loose, and I began to expostulate with thee in an infinite agony, in the midst of which I awoke. But the sense of unspeakable injury and outrage hung about me for a long time, and even yet it had not quite departed. Thou shouldst not behave so when thou comestto me in dreams.

Oh, phoebe, I want thee much. Thou art the only person in the world that ever was necessary to me. Other people have occasionally been more or less argreeable; but I think I was always more at ease alone than in anybodys company, till I knew thee. And now I am only myself when thou art within my reach. Thou art an unspeakably beloved woman. How couldst thou inflict such frozen agony upon me in that dream?

If I write any more, it would only be to express more lovings and longings; and as they are impossible to express, I may as well close.
Thy Husband