StoryTitle("caps", "Mr. Pepys His Valentine") ?>
StoryOrigin("center", SmallCapsText("AS RELATED BY HIMSELF IN 1666 (Adapted)") ) ?>
InitialWords(0, "This", "smallcaps", "nodropcap", "noindent") ?>
morning, came up to my wife's bedside, I being up
dressing myself, little Will Mercer, to be her valentine;
and brought her name writ upon blue paper in gold letters,
done by himself, very pretty; and we were both well pleased
with it.
But I am also this year my wife's valentine; and it will cost me five pounds; but that I must have laid out if we had not been valentines.
I find also that Mrs. Pierce's little girl is my valentine, she having drawn me; which I am not Page(44) ?> sorry for, it easing me of something more that I must have given to others.
But here I do first observe the fashion of drawing of mottoes as well as names; so that Pierce, who drew my wife, did draw also a motto, and this girl drew another for me. What mine was I have forgot, but my wife's was: "Most virtuous and most fair," which, as it may be used, or an anagram made upon each name, might be very pretty.