My dress is a little too tight around the bust, but as it is by far by most beautiful in watered emerald silk with velvet print, I had decided against my better judgement to wear it. My dear fiancé approves, remarking on my colouring and kissing my neck. We are leaving the comfort of my quarters to meet his uncle for the first time, and I am anxious to please. I feel unclean, awkward after not washing after his attentions, and hope this new acquaintance will not see me as impurely as I am tainted.
I am much younger than my beau, but I love him as truly as any one of my age ever could. Being eighteen and blossoming into a pale innocent with wide dark eyes, it had seemed fitting for me to leave my mother and my siblings and seek better things in the city. I had gained work as a shop girl in
