Letter from M. Carey Thomas to Mary Elizabeth Garrett, July 31, 1893

My darling why have you not written to me? Think of how many letters you have had and if you had even written Friday I should have received it this evening. Telegrams do not answer. Yours this morning in reply to mine on arriving in Phila. came to me by a miracle I fancy through Mr. Marshall recognising your initials - as it was addressed GÇ£To: Carty ThomasGÇ¥. Why do you say in it GÇ£betterGÇ¥ Have you not been well? Between GÇ£coolGÇ¥ and GÇ£much loveGÇ¥ GÇ£betterGÇ¥ is surely inserted. Well - today has been spent with Dr. Rhoads from 9 - 1, that is the aft in unpacking and sorting papers and now I have a threat of headache which will cut short your letter I fear. I have taken a caffeine phenacetin pill and have sent to have your most useful present filled. Dr. Rh looks wretched and is I think deeply discouraged. The Trustees have been behaving worse than ever and he has been working since June to have Miss Newbold appointed Mistress of Pembroke. They insisted on a Fund and only appointed her a week ago. They passed at a Special Meeting a lot of abominable resolutions which I hope to modify but which will make us ridiculous otherwise. Dr. Rh was powerless to prevent them. There is no help for it now. This next year must be lived through and every effort made to save the College (Dr. Rhoads seemed to approve of my plan to let me manage all business details next year as an unanswerable argument to those Trustees who think a woman cannot attend to business. That I can put through.) But I think we shall fail. The balance seems to me too unfairly weighted. I have tried the experiment against my own judgment since I really understood the temper of the Trustees largely in deference to your judgment and MamieGÇÖs but at least there is the comfort of thinking everything has been done that could be done. But one other year also will have been lost. However I am going to be philosophical about it and not worry. This year at least we shall not be made ill but accept what comes. After all it may be for the best who can tell. What is for the best? I wonder if it is drainage and water pipes and buildings and accts. All of this I am doing. There is really lots to do, such as it is. Miss Gregory came today. She is installed and is really proficient. She is rather a rapid stenographer far more rapid than Mr. Crane and works very neatly on the Remington alas. Tell me Miss BoudeGÇÖs - Mary you must call her. I do address and I will express her the typewriter. The new building seems to me awfully far behind but looks ravishing like an old castle keep. I simply cannot wait till Nov to show it to you. As you see I stopped last night to nurse my headache and read an imbecil [sic] novel of the Duchess I purchased till 10 when I slept till 8:30 A.M. I found your letter at the College and have been working there all day, breaking in Miss Gregory. It is not too hot and my college office is very cool. The hotel here is excellent. I have taken a large corner room to north and east and one adjoining for Mamie on third floor two floors above us $21 a week a piece with reduction for absence. She comes tomorrow. Oh, my dear, how glad I was to receive your letter you do not know. Evidently my love letter written at the station in Denver under the eyes of starving looking miners and addressed to The Antlers you did not receive. Please write for it. Also I wrote from Missouri Valley on Thursday evening where we stopped over. Did you receive that? Of course you felt ill after so much exertion. I wish I had been there to nurse you in my lounge during that second chill. I hope it is warmer now. I want you to do something for me - give Agnes my address and tell her if you are ever really ill or if anything happens she is to telegraph me. Tell me when you write you have done this. What do you suppose happened to Walter Cope our architect on his wedding tour. He left his ten dayGÇÖs wife in a carriage sketching on the side of a mountain for a moment. When he returned he found her gone. He tore down the mountain and found her lying halfway down with the sinews of both legs broken. She has not walked since and the carriage broken to shivers further along. The horse had turned around and run headlong down the mountain throwing her out. Was it not terribly mortifying as well as dreadful. He is the most dapper handsome young man too and old lover of MarrichenGÇÖs. Yes that thunderstorm the aft. we left was truly awful. We were nearly washed away in the train and the the [sic] flash of lightning as we stood on the pavement of BrownGÇÖs Palace was the most alarming I ever saw. It seemed to lick up the whole street for squares. We did have to pay $1 for our room after all. But that train is the one for you to take (it is charming) paying the extra fare from Council Bluffs and you must try the Penna Limited just to see what it is like. There is absolutely no motion and the ventilation through those new ventilators is delightful only you must try to get in car 75 or one of the new ones. Write to Mr. Dering 248 Clark St Chicago. That is the City Office of the Penna RR and the main office. Both sections and the Drawing Rooms are far nicer in the new cars. At Harrisburg at 2 P.M. you get in a parlor car for Baltimore. I sent timetables Windemere book and novels and Sch. Circulars yesterday. Here it is mail time and no time to tell you of Chicago. Will the next time. Have I missed you and thought of you? So much, so much of both thinking and missing. I can scarcely believe the Adirondacks will really come true but they must and they are now only 30 days off. Goodbye my darling