October 27, 1923 FROM VIOLETTE CHASE

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Filed without an envelope. Presumed to be sent from either Minnesota during the construction of Winters Haven, or from Atlanta Georgia during the construction of the safe house -- to Whispers Estate in France.

27 October 1923

Dearest Alexander

I haven’t had much time to sit and write lately. But I should have made time, and I apologize to you.

The bottom floor of the big house is all but completed. Irwin says it will be “livable” by the end of November. It is very interesting to watch the place grow from the ground up. Don’t worry; I have been keeping well out of the way of everyone. Besides the weather will soon be far too cold to go out in. We have already had frost, and a bit of powdery snow. Brrrr!

You will be very surprised to see your daughter. She’ll be one year old in January, already it seems! It barely seems like yesterday when she was born.

She is quite a busybody! She wants to try to do everything the builders do. I wonder what she will do when she grows up: I think we both hope for more than just being a mother and a wife for her. She has such a lively and quick mind.

Not that there is anything wrong with being a wife and mother. But I know, from when I worked in France, that women can do just as much as men.

I suppose I sound very much like one of those women suffragettes, the ones always talking about “equality” and such. I do not mean to be so. But I must admit, that sometimes I miss my work there. There is only so clean one can get a dish!

I hope you will be home soon. We see so little of you these days. I think Sarah recognizes Irwin far more easily than she will recognize you. I know that sounds cruel, but we have never hidden truths from each other, have we?

Do you think you will be back home before Christmas? It would be so wonderful to be together as a family then. It is a very special time for us as well . . . unless you’ve forgotten those days . . . and nights . . . we spent together in Paris during the winter.

I miss you my darling, and so does Sarah. I wish I could tell you in words, how much I truly love you. Sometimes the depth and fierceness of it frightens me. I do not know what I would do, if anything happened to you. My life would be so empty, not worth living, without you.

But then, I think you know that, don’t you? At night, when we are together, I think I can feel our love, almost like some living spirit between us. Do you feel it too?

Hurry home when you can my darling. I don’t completely understand all this frightful business. But I know that it is terribly important to you, and that is enough for me.

My love and kisses go with this letter to you Alexander. Think of Sarah, and me perhaps it will make your tasks quicker and less troublesome.

With deepest affection;

Violette