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Conger Reynolds correspondence, November 1918
1918-11-25 Conger Reynolds to Daphne Reynolds Page 1
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The Twenty-fifth of November. Light of my Life! On the eleventh monthly repetition of the date of the famous day of our wedded union I salute thee. It is hard to realize, isn't it? The next time the twenty-fifth comes round it will mark our anniversary, using the word in its exact sense. We shall have been married a whole year. Yes, it will be difficult to comprehend. I shall want the joys of the first ten days of that year resumed and continued for a long time before I shall be able to believe that we've been married so long. The anniversary will be a very happy one for me as this eleventh month day is. Even though it will not permit me the fulfillment of my constant wish to be with you it will be brimming with the high hopes that victory and the rapid rounding out of the task which had brought me away from you permit me to support. On that first twenty-fifth there was always in the background or undercurrent of our great happiness the disturbing prospect of separation and uncertainty as to what might happen afterward. On this next one, though we shall lack the joys of being together, we shall be cheered by the bright prospect of early reunion and the right to resume our lives together where we left off, with nothing but the most inviting future ahead. Today I love you, Daphne, not so tumultuously as I did eleven months ago, but more deeply and powerfully. I know the tumult of love will come upon me again when I have you in my arms, when I scent the perfume in your hair, when I feel your kisses upon my lips. But it is long since I have had those experiences to set my blood racing. Love has become simply a strong sentiment, emotion, mental habit, residing firmly in head and heart and keeping you always the most beautiful influence in my life. I have loved you truly always. The best gift I can give you for your Christmas and anniversary is my word that I have always been faithful to your splendid confidence in me. I've tried to be a good hubbub and I think I've succeeded to the extent of being somewhere near the sort you'd have me. Of course I haven't had much chance yet to find out what you want me to be, but at least I know I haven't done anything that would make you sorry you took me to be your lawful wedded wife. A nice thing happened this afternoon to aid me in cheer appropriate to the day. I got a present. At 5 o'clock I picked up an official envelope from the mail table, opened it and read "War Department, Special Orders No. 258-F, Washington, November 4, 1918. Extract. Par. 38. The appointment of the following named officers in the Adjutant General's Department, in the United States Army, during the existing emergency, with rank from October 8, 1918, are announced: To be First Lieutenants: Second Lieutenant Conger Reynolds, Adjutant General's Department. By order of the Secretary of War: Peyton C. March, General, Chief of Staff." So I learned on the 25th of November that since October 8 I have been a first lieutenant. I'm pretty mad they didn't let me in on the secret before this, but my satisfaction at have graduated from the shavetail class will enable me to overlook that feature of developments. Next thing I'll see if I can collect the increased pay since October 8 or whether I have to begin today, the date of acceptance. If I get the in-
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The Twenty-fifth of November. Light of my Life! On the eleventh monthly repetition of the date of the famous day of our wedded union I salute thee. It is hard to realize, isn't it? The next time the twenty-fifth comes round it will mark our anniversary, using the word in its exact sense. We shall have been married a whole year. Yes, it will be difficult to comprehend. I shall want the joys of the first ten days of that year resumed and continued for a long time before I shall be able to believe that we've been married so long. The anniversary will be a very happy one for me as this eleventh month day is. Even though it will not permit me the fulfillment of my constant wish to be with you it will be brimming with the high hopes that victory and the rapid rounding out of the task which had brought me away from you permit me to support. On that first twenty-fifth there was always in the background or undercurrent of our great happiness the disturbing prospect of separation and uncertainty as to what might happen afterward. On this next one, though we shall lack the joys of being together, we shall be cheered by the bright prospect of early reunion and the right to resume our lives together where we left off, with nothing but the most inviting future ahead. Today I love you, Daphne, not so tumultuously as I did eleven months ago, but more deeply and powerfully. I know the tumult of love will come upon me again when I have you in my arms, when I scent the perfume in your hair, when I feel your kisses upon my lips. But it is long since I have had those experiences to set my blood racing. Love has become simply a strong sentiment, emotion, mental habit, residing firmly in head and heart and keeping you always the most beautiful influence in my life. I have loved you truly always. The best gift I can give you for your Christmas and anniversary is my word that I have always been faithful to your splendid confidence in me. I've tried to be a good hubbub and I think I've succeeded to the extent of being somewhere near the sort you'd have me. Of course I haven't had much chance yet to find out what you want me to be, but at least I know I haven't done anything that would make you sorry you took me to be your lawful wedded wife. A nice thing happened this afternoon to aid me in cheer appropriate to the day. I got a present. At 5 o'clock I picked up an official envelope from the mail table, opened it and read "War Department, Special Orders No. 258-F, Washington, November 4, 1918. Extract. Par. 38. The appointment of the following named officers in the Adjutant General's Department, in the United States Army, during the existing emergency, with rank from October 8, 1918, are announced: To be First Lieutenants: Second Lieutenant Conger Reynolds, Adjutant General's Department. By order of the Secretary of War: Peyton C. March, General, Chief of Staff." So I learned on the 25th of November that since October 8 I have been a first lieutenant. I'm pretty mad they didn't let me in on the secret before this, but my satisfaction at have graduated from the shavetail class will enable me to overlook that feature of developments. Next thing I'll see if I can collect the increased pay since October 8 or whether I have to begin today, the date of acceptance. If I get the in-
World War I Diaries and Letters
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