1 81 Guildford St
2 Russell Sq.
3 London. WC
4
5 April 9th 1882
6
7 My dear Alice,
8
9 I was glad once more to hear from you & should have been better
10pleased still had the news about your own health been better.
11
12 About Wynnie’s boots. I went at once to the best medical shoemaker
13in the Strand, took your letter & told him what kind of thing I wanted.
14 He said he could easily make them if he had a cast of the foot. I
15told him he could not have that because the person was in Africa & it
16would take too long. He said "Well without a cast or an exact measure
17I will not make them." I said no one would blame him if the shoes
18boots didn’t fit, but it was no use he wouldn’t do it, & they say
19I won’t find any one who will without the exact measure. You had
20better send me the measure taken very exactly by a shoe-maker & I will
21send the boots out with young Bertram when he returns to the Cape. It
22is a great disappointment to me not to have been able to get them done
23at once. I am going as a last hope to the hospital for complaints of
24the foot, to see if one as one of the doctors there can’t order it
25for me. I think you would rather have them fitting not quite so well,
26than to wait. I hope the dear little woman’s foot will soon grow
27strong. I send you part of Emma’s last letter that you may see what
28she says about the boots. Fred says that if a boot of the kind we want
29was made, it would hurt the foot & weaken it more than strengthen it
30if it didn’t fit very exactly.
31
32 I have not seen the John Hemmings since their return from Paris. I
33fancy they leave soon. I do not know their new address, but shall try
34to learn it at their last lodgings.
35
36 I don’t know if I have written since I was in London. I have been
37here a month now. Will has apartments in the same house. He is leaving
38next week for Cambridge or Eastbourne, he has not quite made up his
39mind which, & will likely remain there till he returns to the old
40Country. I haven’t much to tell of myself. I don’t know a soul in
41London so as you may guess I lead a very quiet life – study &
42scribble all day long. I am hoping in the holidays to have Wilfred
43here for a week & we shall have glorious times together. Often when I
44am with him I think of my old day dreams abut "our boy" & the friends
45I used to think he & I would be if we met after he was grown older.
46Wilfred is very dear to me, but my old Leo has a place no other child
47will ever take.
48
49 Good-bye dear old sister. Let me hear from you soon about the boots. It
50is a great disappointment not to have been able to get them yet, but
51with an exact measure it will be all right
52
53^A kiss for all the little ones from ^
54 Your loving sister
55 Olive
56
57