Chipping Norton
May 15th/77
My Darling Eugénie,
I think I will post a letter to you this morning because then I may get a reply on Friday afternoon in which case I shall be able to write again this week before leaving for Ash.
Your letter yesterday, darling, made me very happy it is so nice to feel that I really hold your best and dearest affections I can never have any happiness equal to that in trying to repay your confidence with all the love and kindness that I can bestow upon you, my own Eugénie.
I handed George your letter, he said you told him you had not been very well, as you did not say anything to me I hope you were feeling quite well when you wrote, you must tell me, dearest, in your next for I hoped the headache last week was only temporary.
Mrs Chouls has a cold so she is not in the best of tempers, she says she is so very anxious to see “Mrs Sladden” by and bye.
I am so glad you have had a few pleasant parties for I like to hear that my Eugénie is enjoying herself, perhaps you will think me vain if I say that I am not afraid of your leaving me in the lurch, if ever I were confident of anything it is that my darling is possessed of too warm and affectionate a disposition to be even a trifle heartless.
Yesterday we went to Over Norton Park, rook shooting, and had some very fair sport and tired ourselves out pretty well.
We too are having a considerable amount of rain just now but it does an immense amount of good my roses are growing well but are still backward, I hope to bring some with me in June towards which happy time of our meeting I seem to long more anxiously as it draws nearer and nearer each week, how much we shall have to talk about, and discuss arrangements about our future home.
I must now break off my letter as my old friend Capt Rawlinson, whom I have not seen for two years, has come in and it is only ½ an hour to post time.
Good-bye my darling, I hope to send a longer and less stupid letter next time,
Ever believe me
Yours most lovingly
Julius Sladden
