The subsequent pages are filled with quick notes of social engagements, pages from witch weekly, dress ideas, and shopping lists until another entry dated: July 24, 1889


Dearest journal,

You are the only one with which I can share these thoughts. Today mother told me of the most disheartening news. I suppose I should feel happier for the situation at hand, but all I feel are shackles upon my wrists. I am to be married. But not to the man of my choosing, which my mother has always hinted I might have. Instead I am to be married to the father of former classmates: Mr. Durant Lecuyer! I remember the Lecuyer girls from school and they hardly had any time for anyone beyond their own sphere. I hardly saw an ounce of kindness from them with our years together and indeed found school much more enjoyable when they were enrolled at Pendergasts’. Mother feels certain this shall be a good match, but I can hardly agree.

Yet her reasons I can find no fault in. I can hardly write what she told me, for my hand shakes so at the very thought, yet I must find a way to voice these thoughts to find peace with my upcoming nuptials. Mother does not believe she is long for this earth. She wishes to see me married before anything were to happen to her. Mother’s always been over dramatic about her health, but I can not take the chance that this is one of those moments. I shall oblige with her wishes, for wont of any better situations at present. I shall simply have to believe that my lot in life will be better for this. Perhaps the Lecuyer girls are different from their father, perhaps he has be a gentler soul.