1Dear Friend
2
3The grapes came yesterday & were lovely. We have not even milk now, so
4ones diet is very limited.
5
6I will go on Sunday again to the hotel & ask the terms. The Hotel man
7& his wife are at Kimberley just now & others couldn’t tell the
8charges in case you & Miss Molteno should come.
9
10They used to £12 a month for each with a separate room, & £19 a
11month for two sharing one room. But they may be changed. I cannot stay
12at the hotel because is lies among the trees & in a damp garden, but
13it would not be damp to you after Cape Town.
14
15The people at Lamoenfontein have written to say they can’t have me.
16I am going to advertise in Ons Land & the SA News for a place on a
17farm. Do you know what that new hotel at Beaufort West near the
18railways station is like? (Its double story & a fine dry airy position.)
19 Mightn’t we all get rooms there & spend a little time there
20together in June. It’s strange one seems able to find no place
21anywhere, & I want so to get on with my book.
22
23I have hear of a place beyond Frazerburg, in the ?Canaron district
24where they would take a boarder, but then when I got there I might
25find it did not suit my asthma & it would be so difficult to come back.
26 Middleburg is crowded with military now not a room to be had.
27
28Hanover is a very sad little place now since the war is
29
30We seem all to have sunk back in to the depths of the vulgar little
31sodden up-country village life. No one ever mentions the war now: I
32think I have not heard any one refer to it for six months. I never go
33out anywhere. Sometimes weeks pass with out my speaking to a human
34creature, except to Cron when he comes in to meals. The war of course
35drew us together & out of our selves for a little time; now all that
36is gone; & the only subject of conversation are dress, & the little
37Town quarrells over water, &c &c.
38
39I do hope you are feeling better. Perhaps a change Up-country might do
40you good. Did you two like the Soul of a People, to me it will always
41be the book that has touched me most in the world. Its not the
42Religious Budhistic teaching, its something in the sweet spirit of the
43writer. He doesn’t like me; but there is no reason he should be any
44the less loveable for that. I am still without a servant, & we shall
45perhaps have to sell all our little household belongings if we can’t
46get any place to store the furniture. If only my little house in
47Kimberley hadn’t been blown up with the bom shell I I cou could have
48gone there now. I wonder you & Miss Molteno dont get a little tiny
49house somewhere of your very own; not necessarily always to live it in,
50 but its so nice to feel you have a place I think. I shall buy a
51little house as soon as I can. But I would
52
53^rather have it in Italy than in Africa if it wasn’t for Cron being here.^
54
55Good bye love to you, dear friend
56Olive
57