Dearest Graham:

I understand that people from the office have reached you by telephone, but I will not even try, first because of my (our) poor experiences with the Island telephones, but also because what I have to say and ask can't be shouted through 3,000 miles of wire!

In the first place, Graham, what are we to do about this Boatwright situation? The Bank and Cousin Harriet and many others are constantly on the telephone, and what am I to tell them? The stock closed at 11 I/2 this afternoon, and everybody is frightened that our patrimony is going down the drain. They all insist that we should sell while we can still get that much, and I insist that we should hold fast, but why do I say that? Can you give me any hope? Are we going to win this battle against Mr. Fleischer? Ellsworth Boyle is hearty as always, but his assurances (and constant references to your "key role (?) in the situation) sound a little hollow to me. I don't know why you and I should be made to solve these problems, particularly you, because they are after all Boatwright problems that have been avoided and swept under the rug all these years. You always say that one has to  play the cards that are dealt, and this seems to be our hand, dearest, so won't you please give me some advice, or at least some words of encouragement?

But, Graham, that is money talk. May I talk about us for a moment? In a way it is easier to say these things on paper - I would never have the nerve or the control to say them to you in person. I don't know what to do any more. I've gotten so many hints, from "friends", from my sister, from all sorts of people. Now I've got a terrible letter from Dolly Despard! Oh, Graham, what can I say, that you have gotten to the point where you have your fun with a poor pathetic mess like Dolly, who now thinks you love her, she "understands" you and I don't, "can't we have a heart-to-heart talk" and "realign our lives". (Where did Dolly hear the word "realign"?) I'm glad I threw the letter away but if I showed it to you, you would die of embarrassment, it is so trite and awful. But what I'm so afraid of now is that the children will begin to hear things about you. They love and respect you so much, and what will happen to them if they are teased in school about their father, whose exploits are becoming cocktail party conversation, apparently!

What can I say to you? You know I have loved you from the first moment I ever saw you, in your wrinkled army uniform walking into Louisa McDonough's coming-out at the Barclay, looking tired and forlorn, and you were older and didn't know me and I spent weeks plotting how to meet you and finally succeeded at that foolish mixer in Cambridge. I know it has been a one-sided relationship, that I'm not beautiful, that I have not been interesting and exciting enough for you, but you know I did my best. I even tried to learn some German, so that I could know that side of you, and so I could understand Lotte Lenya singing: "Und wenn einer tritt, dann bin ich es, und wird einer getreten, dann bist's Du!" And I do believe that side of you has caused us all this trouble: you loved your father so much, Graham, that you've never gotten over the fact that he left and was killed and it is all mixed up in your mind with your mother and the business with Lord Cranmore, and of course it was all terribly dramatic for a lonely emotional little boy, by comparison my own childhood was pure dullness, and perhaps your romantic past is one of the things that has fascinated me so much, but I think these blows when you were a little boy made you shy away from emotional commitments, any kind, even to your wife, and here you are thirty-three years old sleeping with all these women trying to find something that I can give you so much better than they can. Is that a terrible thing to say? Graham, you're not the little boy in a bathrobe, sitting on a piano bench listening to Gustaf Anders singing German marching songs. Your father and mother are dead, my father and mother are dead, we're approaching middle age, we've got children to look out for, we've got responsibilities to a big family and a sick company and a big law firm, and you just can't indulge yourself this way any more. You're not Freddie Minto but, Graham, if you keep this up, you'll become like him. Is that what you want?

God, what an outburst! I'm not going to read it over because then I'd probably tear it up. I'm going to hop in the car and drive to the post office before I change my mind. Everybody is asleep. The sea is very still, and there is a lovely full moon. I love you more than anything in the world and wish you were not so far away.

Won't you please come home? Everybody needs you, I most of all. 

GRAHAM ANDERS AMERICAN ACADEMY SCHLOSS FYRMIAN SALZBURG 
UNABLE TO REACH YOU BY TELEPHONE PERIOD NEXT HEARING ON FLEISCHER SUIT SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER PERIOD BOATWRIGHT DOWN TO ELEVEN ONE HALF PERIOD WARFIELDS NOW WANT OUT PERIOD YOUR AGREEMENT PERMITS UNILATERAL RECISSION IF DEAL NOT CLOSED BY AUGUST EIGHT PERIOD PRESUMABLY WARFIELDS HAVE BETTER OFFER ELSEWHERE PERIOD URGENTLY REPEAT URGENTLY SUGGEST YOUR IMMEDIATE BE TURN TO HELP US COPE WITH DETERIORATING SITUATION PERIOD BOYLE