I felt as if I were being drawn into the writer 's life , admitted into the most sacred recesses of his thoughts and feelings . Yet it was all done so subtly , so delicately , that I was unconscious of the change until I discovered it in reading over the older letters and comparing them with the later ones . Finally a letter came -- my first love letter , and surely never was a love letter received under stranger circumstances . It began abruptly as all the letters had begun , plunging into the middle of the writer 's strain of thought without any preface . The first words drove the blood to my heart and then sent it flying hotly all over my face . I love you . I must say it at last . Have you not guessed it before ? It has trembled on my pen in every line I have written to you -- yet I have never dared to shape it into words before . I know not how I dare now . I only know that I must . What a delight to write it out and know that you will read it . Tonight the mood is on me to tell it to you recklessly and lavishly , never pausing to stint or weigh words . Sweetheart , I love you -- love you -- love you -- dear true , faithful woman soul , I love you with all the heart of a man . Ever since I first saw you I have loved you . I can never come to tell you so in spoken words ; I can only love you from afar and tell my love under the guise of impersonal friendship . It matters not to you , but it matters more than all else in life to me . I am glad that I love you , dear -- glad , glad , glad . There was much more , for it was a long letter . When I had read it I buried my burning face in my hands , trembling with happiness .
This strange confession of love meant so much to me ; my heart leaped forth to meet it XXXXX answering love .
as for in into of over than under until with