Wedding letter to Kate, pages 5 (right) and 8 (left): Miss Louisa flees to the garden with Tody, the Reception day, callers Mr. Simonton and Gen. Conner
Book 1, Page 193
Transcription
An open-book scan showing two facing leaves of a handwritten letter in brown ink on lined paper. The left leaf is paginated 8 at the top centre, the right leaf 5 — i.e., the letter pages on this opening are in reverse binding order, and the reading-order is right column then left column.
Right column (letter page 5)
& Saw how late Aunt Louisa / could be to breakfast. / It was a very windy day / So they went to Broad St. / After Church, & then back / home to dinner — Mr. Simonton / & Gen. Conner came to See / T.G.B. down Stairs, took / a Cigar & had a few / jokes I suppose from / the Sounds in the Room / while Louisa Received / Miss Murden ^& Miss Huger up Stairs in / the drawing Room — Nell / went to Church — I did / not, as it was So windy / & She gives a funny / Account of how She was / Stared at by Every one / Men, women, & Children / & how disappointed they / looked to See her Small / Self in the middle of / the pew — little dry me
Left column (letter page 8)
we cant talk about this any / other time. — Miss Louisa / flew to the garden, & remained / with T.G.B., & I laughed — / Nell asked me quite Sternly / later in the Evening — “Had Tody / been waiting long for Louisa?” / So then I had the fun of / telling the joke on Miss Louisa / So you See we have our / little funs Still — / Mr McMillan & Hennie came / before dark & “Brother” was / taken up by Louisa to See / her room — He was determined / with it & Every thing in it. / they left and after a while / Mitchell & Hennie came & / after they left we all went / [to bed] — The Reception day / Nell & I scurried around / & people sent beautiful / flowers — arranged & some / baskets of Cut flowers
AI Notes
An open-book scan whose left and right leaves carry the wedding letter to Kate OUT OF letter-page order: the left leaf is paginated 8 at top centre, and the right leaf paginated 5 — i.e., the right leaf is the verso of one bifolium and the left leaf is the recto of the next (so within this open-book view, the letter reads right-then-left). The right column (letter page 5) describes the day after the wedding/breakfast, a windy Sunday with the household going to Broad Street after Church, callers Mr. Simonton & Gen. Conner coming to see T.G.B. (the bridegroom) downstairs with a cigar, Louisa receiving Miss Murden & Miss Huger up Stairs, and Nell’s funny report of being stared at in Church. The left column (letter page 8) describes the writer’s little joke on Miss Louisa, callers Mr. McMillan & Hennie, ‘Brother’ being shown around by Louisa, and preparations for the Reception day with flowers. Major ‘Hib’ → ‘T.G.B.’ (left col., line 3); ‘Hadnt I been waiting longer for Louisa?’ → ‘“Had Tody been waiting long for Louisa?”’ (left col., line 5 — Tody is Theodore Gaillard Barker’s family pet name); ‘Mr. Pinckney’ → ‘Mr. Simonton’; ‘Gen. Conner came to Tell down Stairs’ → ‘Gen. Conner came to See / T.G.B. down Stairs’; ‘Miss Mindon’ → ‘Miss Murden, & Miss Huger’.
Letter continues on page 190L (=letter-page 9). The unguarded use of ‘T.G.B.’ and the pet-name ‘Tody’ on this page is the clearest internal evidence that the bridegroom is Theodore Gaillard Barker. “Aunt Louisa” (here distinct from the bride ‘Miss Louisa’) is presumably an older Louisa among the host family — possibly Mrs Mitchell King, the bride’s mother. “Brother” in quotation marks at the McMillan-Hennie call is likely a household pet name for one of the visitors or a family member.