1 de Aar
2 July 6th 1912
3
4 Dear Isie
5
6 Could you send me Miss Hobhouse’s address as soon as you can. I have
7never written to thank her for that loving thought of hers. The time
8was a few years ago when going to Nauheim or some European cure me so
9far that I could have gone on working & finished some book. Now I know
10I shall never write anything again. I have not been out of the house
11here since I came back from Cape Town in March except the day I went
12to meet you, & then it was very difficult to get home again. It was
13much easier to walk in Cape Town.
14
15 I had such a vivid dream aft about your husband the night before last.
16I was telling him how much I disliked the Defense Force; I told him he
17was shaping a knife with which other men would cut, not he. And that
18the day would come when he would find that the first civil war in this
19country whether against black men or white would end his career. And
20it seemed to me he was so angry & in such distress. Of course in real
21life he would only have laughed at me, & told me in his heart, that I
22was a fool. But the dream seems cut into my mind.
23
24 I am so anxious about the future of the country: but perhaps it is
25because I am ill that I feel so depressed about it. You don’t know
26how much I care about your husband, & how I have hoped for his really
27great career in South Africa. No other South African has his brilliant
28intellect, his charm, his unwearied power of labour. But what I ask
29myself is "Does always see far enough?" Old Jan Hofmeyr had not his
30charm, not his brilliancy - but he saw far!
31
32 My husband has returned from his trip from the falls. He enjoyed it so
33greatly.
34
35 Good bye, dear. I hope you are all well & happy. Your small auntie
36sends her love to you all.
37
38Olive
39