1 Hanover
2 Oct 10 / 03
3
4 My darling
5
6 I really must tell you something. Last night a man was here & Cron
7said he would lend him "Songs from the Veld." He said he would mark
8the three best poems in the book for him. I looked & he had marked "de
9Wet" by B. Shadwell & two of your poems "Freedom spoke to the
10?freedoms of old" (which I think is easily first of all you have
11written) & the last of your poems.
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13 The other day I said to him, "You know, Mrs Purcell told me she had
14heard that Miss Greene wrote those first poems in "Songs from the Veld.
15" Cron said "Isn’t that good! Miss Greene’s a very fine woman, but
16fancy her having written them! The person who wrote those things was a
17poet!" If I die from bursting some day it will be all your fault
18bottling me up so.
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20 ^this page^ Strictly private. We have had blow on blow since coming back.
21 Cron finds that his clerk young Pepplar has tried to make way with
22hundreds of pounds. Of course for his parents sake we are going to say
23nothing about it, but Cron could put him on the roads at once. He has
24had to allow it. But a much worse blow fell on Cron the other day. A
25man whom we considered the dearest of our friends here, the finest man
26in the district, had offered to pay the work-men ^who were building the house^
27for Cron while he was away. A Cron gave him the right to draw the
28money from the bank. Well we wondered how our little tiny house could
29have cost so much when we came unreadable I had asked him unreadable
30Now Cron has been over the accounts ^carefully^ & finds £107 more than
31was paid to the work-men, & the man allows he took it for himself. He
32has offered to repay it & give a promissory note at 6 months. But it
33has been an awful stab to Cron. It is so terrible to me that his
34beautifully trustful nature should be awaked like this. Don’t
35mention all this to anyone.
36
37 My meerkats are all well. The little ones are too sweet & lovely.
38
39 Good bye darling
40 Olive
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