Background information and commentary by Andrew Carroll: I thought I'd select a love letter this week in honor of Valentine's Day, but, as with the other letters we've been featuring, I wanted to find something a little different and unexpected. Werner Walti, a Swiss national visiting Scotland, kept the following letter -- a sweet missive filled with expressions of love and yearning -- in his coat pocket, quite literally close to his heart. Written by a woman named Marion (last name unknown) from Palo Alto, California, the brief but intimate letter fondly recalled wonderful days together between two people who were meant to be united once again. It is dated June 1, 1939 -- exactly three months before the outbreak of war in Europe. (The full text of the letter is published, we believe for the first time, in BEHIND THE LINES.)

Good morning, silent one!

I have been wondering where you were, and have been afraid you would leave without saying goodbye. You may have gone already, but you can't be farther than my wishes for your happiness can travel.

Will you forgive me for something? Do you remember the time I gave you the new penny? I was in very bad discipline that night. I was foolish as in the summer on Ridge Road and you brought me to my senses again. You are the strong wise one. And your help and affection have meant more to me than you can know....

Do you remember the little cow we had on Ridge Road and the little wooden Virgin and how you objected to their standing together? It was a funny little thing, or so I thought, that you should object. But since then it has showed me something deep in you that I was slow to appreciate. . . .

I love you for all that is fine in you, and for all your encouragement. I want to be worthy of your friendship.

My love goes with you --

Affectionately,
Marion

Not a word of the letter was true. It is not that Marion did not harbor these feelings, but that Marion did not exist; Werner Walti was, in fact, a German spy named Robert Petter. The letter was believed to be part of Petter's cover in Scotland, where he had just arrived to investigate the strength of Royal Air Force units in the region. Caught in Edinburgh's Waverly train station with a fake passport and other incriminating evidence, Petter was later sentenced under the Treachery Act, and, along with another spy named Karl Drugge, was executed in August 1941.

NEXT WEEK: One of the bawdiest World War I letters ever written.