12 Charleville Circus, Sydenham
May 10th 1915
My dear old Boy
I am feeling rather lost without you, especially now I am alone so am going to write you a few lines in this half hour before my train leaves.
Kath and I did not stay up long after getting in but am afraid we made up for it by chatting in bed until nearly twelve!
I am very glad, darling, to have seen you again – it does my heart good to see you looking so well – if only you will look like that when you come home after you’ve had a rest from fighting, it will be worthwhile having had to part with you. I think, when you go back to indoor work again, you must arrange to take up something whereby you will get plenty of exercise; I don’t want you to go back to being thin and tired-looking again, I am sure you need plenty of exercise and outdoor life to keep you absolutely fit.
The papers are very sad – some of the survivors criticize the crew of the Lusitania very severely. I expect there will be a long and exhaustive enquiry – I do hope that it will lead to some very strong measures being taken; the Lusitania had no naval escort and seems to have taken few precautions in spite of warnings.
Did you fall in with any friends at Farnborough and so manage to share a motor? Somebody next door is practicing scales most assiduously, which reminds me I must begin to do the same directly I have the chance.
I want to arrange a kind of code that we can use when you are abroad if you should be taken prisoner or if you want to wire. We had better use quite everyday sentences which will seem to have no other meaning and yet will convey a great deal to us. Supposing you are not getting proper food or conditions generally are bad, we must have one sentence for that and so on.
I will write tomorrow, possibly from Beverly – I hope they got my card all right this morning.
Goodbye for the present, dear Heart – it has made all the difference seeing you again. I am sure we get on better when we are together than when we are apart which points to a happy future. Why does it worry you, Sweetheart, that you should ever speak a harsh word to me? I am not going to give you cause to, if I can possibly keep it, and I don’t think you would do so if I did not give you cause. If, by some chance, you were angry with me for no apparent reason, I think I could be patient and wait for I should know you were not your own dear self, and that you would be very sorry afterwards. I don’t think we shall have much difficulty in living very happily together even when I am at my moodiest, for at least I am conscious of my faults and that goes a long way to help for I soon come round to seeing my own foolishness.
I must catch the train now darling.
All my love from
Your devoted
Mela.
