A Woman of Independent Means (4 page)

We will furnish the guest room to your taste if you will agree to occupy it on a regular basis. You are now the only mother I have left in this world.

Your loving
daughter-in-law,
Bess

August 19, 1912
Dallas

Dear Lydia,

Your mother has become a valued member of our household, and we hope she will live here permanently. You have been a devoted daughter but it is the responsibility of a son to care for his parents in their old age, and your Manning should not be thrust into this role by marriage.

How is business at his store? He is such an intelligent, well-spoken man, but accounting cannot come easily to a man with his literary outlook on life. Fortunately, figures have always held a poetic fascination for me.

I hope you and Manning will visit us soon in our splendid new setting.

Fondly,
Bess

October 2, 1912
St. Louis, Missouri

Dear Papa and Mavis,

We have only traveled to St. Louis but I feel I am seeing the world for the first time. I will never be content to stay at home again—at least not for very long at a time. I am twenty-one. A third of my life is over (or maybe just a quarter—I am looking forward to a very long old age), and I am just discovering what a small part of the world Texas is, though you would never know it from living there.

I hope this will be the first of many trips Rob and I make together. I will go with him anywhere—for business or pleasure, though to him business is pleasure, a feeling I am beginning to share.

My love to you both,
Bess

October 3, 1912
St. Louis

Darling Robin and Drew,

Daddy and I miss you so much. We spent this afternoon walking through a beautiful park full of exotic plants and animals. The plants are in a building called the Jewel Box and the animals are in the best zoo I have ever seen. If I were a lion or tiger, I would rather live in the St. Louis Zoo than in the wilds of Africa.

Daddy is doing lots of business here, so we will come again soon and bring you with us. Remember, Robin, you are the man of the house while your father is away, so take good care of your grandmother and your baby brother until we return.

Hugs and kisses,
Mummy

October 10, 1912
St. Louis

Dear Mother Steed,

You would be so proud to see what a grand impression your son is making on all the important people of this city. He is the kind of man whose business will take him to the ends of the earth before he is through and I ask nothing more of life than to travel there with him.

I have decided to celebrate our return with a formal dinner party at home. Would you please take the enclosed sample to the printer and order fifty engraved invitations. I have left the date blank until you check with the caterer to see if she is available on either October 29 or 30.

Tell Annie not to be nervous at the prospect of a formal dinner party. I will hire someone to serve. And I give her my word she will not have to leave the kitchen, so she will not need a new uniform.

We long to see the children—and I suspect you long just as fervently to have them out of your sight for a while.

Fondly,
Bess

October 20, 1912
Dallas, Texas

Dear Lydia,

Your letter was waiting on our return from a glorious three weeks in St. Louis. We are anxious to see you and Manning but we have a social commitment we cannot cancel on October 29. Would the following weekend be equally convenient? We will plan a family picnic at Exall Lake so there will be no danger of interruption from well-meaning friends. We look forward to seeing you.

Love from us both,
Bess

January 10, 1913

Received of Robert Randolph Steed on this date the sum of $14,000 (fourteen thousand dollars), repaying in full the loan of $20,000 (twenty thousand dollars) contracted on January 10, 1911.

WITNESSED BY: Annie Hoffmeyer
Hans Hoffmeyer

February 28, 1913
Dallas

Dear Papa and Mavis,

My life as a Dallas matron is proving very conducive to my continuing education.

I take French lessons two afternoons a week from a lovely Parisienne whose family owns a millinery shop on Oak Lawn. We redo my spring hats while we conjugate verbs.

Yesterday I read my first paper before the Shakespeare Club. The most prominent women in the city comprise its membership, so I was extremely nervous when I stood to address them. However, my first attempt at literary scholarship was received with great enthusiasm. Apparently I am not alone in my admiration of Lady Macbeth.

Devotedly,
Bess

March 18, 1913
Dallas

Dear Lydia,

Congratulations to you and Manning on the birth of your daughter. Robin and Drew are very excited about the arrival of their first first cousin—and the first girl in the family, though I trust not the last. I am expecting our third child—and praying for a girl. The experience of pregnancy is much too familiar not to hope for a conclusion of a different gender.

I dread the long summer ahead—no dinner parties, no dances at the country club, no evenings at the theater. How shall I pass the time until my due date of September 10? I so wish I could spend the summer in a place where pregnancy is a source of pride rather than embarrassment.

Please give Mother Steed our love. We miss her but understand your need comes first for now. Kiss the baby for me and tell her a new cousin will join her as soon as her impatient aunt can arrange it. Her uncle Rob adds his kiss to mine.

Love,
Bess