1 Hanover
2 Sep 25 / 03
3
4 My darling Friend
5
6 I’m so glad its nice at your brothers farm. The climate here is
7quite perfect just now, but I have been too busy to go out except for
8one little walk since I returned. I am nearly moved into the tiny
9house. I like it so much.
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11 The merries are all so well. The little ones are 14 days old today &
12their eyes are open ‘Arrriet & Tommie are are as fond of them as
13Emmie. ‘Arriet is a picture with her great important grandmotherly
14eyes as she sits over them, all tucked away under her. Poor little
15Tommie simply collapses with feeling, & sits with his head down as if
16he were quite faint. If you & Miss Greene were living in Africa & had
17a house of your own I would give you the three little ones. I won’t
18give them to any one else.
19
20 My darling boy is very busy, very hard worked & with many worries. The
21leaders of the party want him not to stand for this district as they
22want the seat for du Vaal. Cron has a big majority, but they want him
23to leave the seat for du Vaal so he is going to do so. The people here
24are very angry about h it. The part people at Prince Albert & in B- W
25want him to stand there. All the Prince Albert branches of the Bond
26have nominated him; but of course he won’t stand against Le Roux
27after all that kindness to me, & after Le Roux having taken me about
28to all the farms. It is le Roux’s own relatives the other Lally's
29who are opposing him most & are determined Cron must stand. But of
30course he can’t under-mine le Roux especially when through le Roux I
31got to know all the people there.
32
33 So he falls out of Parliament. He takes it so splendidly in such a
34large way: I’m so glad.
35
36 The Van Zyl’s house will be ready in a few months, by November I
37should say. Will you be able to come then. If you come before there is
38only the hotel. It is not nice but I & Cron had our dinner there for
39two weeks while I had no place to cook in, & it was not so bad as when
40the other people had it. There is one really nice bed room which the
41other owners have always kept for themselves, but which I think the
42little Jews who keep the place now would let me get for you, if I knew
43some weeks before when you were coming.
44
45 My little mother died so suddenly at the end. For weeks she had seemed
46so much better & freer from pain than for years before, so bright &
47sweet. She was walking about & dressed as usual, & was sitting having
48her lunch by the door on the verandah. Suddenly an attack of angina
49pectoris came on; Mrs Lewis who was with her pressed her arm &
50shoulder, & the pain passed over in a minute or so, then she chatted
51brightly about all sorts of things. Suddenly it came on again; she
52gave one long groan of pain & said, "Say good bye to Will, & poor poor
53Olive." Ettie & my niece & she the housekeeper were there. Ettie said
54shall "I send for Will?"
55
56 She said "Better." Effie ^Brown^ called out to my nephew, her brother,
57to send down town to call Will, but before he ^can have^ got to the gate
58she was gone. She only said "Why are you all so good to me, it makes
59it so hard to go." - & in an instant without a groan or long breath
60the spasm of pain relaxed & she was gone sitting up with a quiet
61peaceful calm up on her face that was they all say the most peaceful
62thing they ever saw.
63
64 ^The man who was left here to manage Cron’s business, young Peppler
65has mismanaged it so shamefully. Cron is having a very hard time. I
66shall have to go down to Cape Town some time in October or November
67but don’t know yet exactly when.^
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