p.

undoubtedly a happy one - & yet, if you stop to think about it, I
can imagine you feeling unhappy, & thinking - 30 when I went
away, & now 32, & still no sign of me coming home. But
it is a bit like the bank sheet, & you have to look properly at
the beginning & end, & instead of being 3 years, it is
16 months. But I hope anyway, that you do not think
of yourself in terms of years of age, or ever [really underlined] think, as
you said in your letter, that you will be an old maid
before I come home. Don't ever think any of those
things, my beautiful darling. It is a tragedy which I
shall never get over or forgive, that we have been
kept apart during these last months & still can see no
real end of it. But, we have had our lovely, glorious
years - passionately happy & passionate years - & we have
completely defied the people who say that passion dies
after a few months. How many people, darling, who
after having been lovers for seven years (it really is as
long as that ) can still be faithful as we are & look
forward to each other even more passionately than we
did seven years ago. Because that is the way I think
of you, my darling sweetheart. Because you are so
adorably sweet & lovely & beautiful & perfect - all your face
& your lips & mouth & your eyes - & all your body & your
darling arms & breasts & legs, & your sweet soft puss which
I love & adore so much. And because you love me in
the same way & we love & long to love each other in
the same way. Oh, sweetest heart, what a wife
you are - & what a lover & mistress you are. These are
all the things where youth is important, my darling, & in
them, I feel eternally youthful, & I'm [sure underlined] you do too.
I have been thinking about all the very particularly