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she is engaged to George Field, the brother of one of her school friends, Molly Field; but the letter also makes it clear that she had done so because she had not expected that Ronald would still care for her and George was kind and someone she felt she could accept as a husband. Tolkien writes again, and they arrange to meet.
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It's that bit which is very telling of the times, and relieves Edith of not being so hopeful! What woman nowadays would simply settle for someone 'acceptable'? It sounds like a business transaction. Yet in those days a husband was almost essential as life as a spinster wasn't much fun, and the longer a woman left it the less likely she would be to get married. Granted, spinsterhood was not as bad a prospect as it was in the days of Jane Austen as women now had the option of working for a living and were not beholden to a male relative any longer in terms of property rights etc, but the cultural aspect was still hard to shift!
So I'll not be too harsh on poor Edith
