1 De Aar
2 Oct 25th 1910
3
4 My dear old Pal
5
6 I haven’t written to you much of late because I’ve not been up to
7writing to any one. Cron brought me back a most flourishing accounts
8of the folk at ^Villa^ Flandre He says Ursula is growing so long; Oliver
9such a "fine, breezie handsome man", "most attractive"! Will growing
10so huge & strong I wouldn’t know him; Fan looking young & blooming &
11happy. (Happiness is a good colour for a woman, takes ten years off
12her age at a shot – this is my saying!). Dot impressed him most by
13her great strength, of character, I mean. He wrote about it & has
14talked about it ever since he came back. I would have liked greatly to
15come & see you. But I couldn’t come by the excursions as I must have
16^room^ to lie down during the day & they are packed too full: & I
17can’t afford to waste money on pleasure merely. I have to leave for
18the summer & am going I think on the 15th to Portlock the Haldane
19Murrays farm in the mountains beyond Graaff Reinet where they have
20kindly said I can board with them for some months till it is cool
21enough to return to de Aar. It would have been nice if Cron had been
22returned in that we might have taken a little cottage for the summer,
23& I should have been able to attend some of the debates in Parliament
24which will be of greater interest than ever before. I am so anxious to
25know how parties are going to split ultimately. One of the things I
26feel most keenly (because the party that is doing it has been supposed
27to be mine) is the way they are slowly & surely turning ^unreadable
28many of^ the best men out of all branches of the service. Of course, we
29must remember what they have suffered - & this is vengeance – but it
30goes against my grain. The only revenge a great individual or party
31should take is to st show how much more magnanimous it can be when in
32power than others have been before it.
33
34 Good bye dear. Write to me please when you can. You don’t know what
35a lonely little person I am & how much I value your letters.
36
37 Olive
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39 The melancholy thing is that whatever the National party may be we
40cannot work with the other while Jameson remains at the head.
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