Tisbury / Oc : 13 : '99 My darling, / a line written / in my bed first thing in the / morning to thank you for your / dear letter & the precious / enclosures with it. Also / I had your long letter / long ago, and loved you / for it and have kept it / by me ever since in order / to answer it, and never / done so. Forgive me, dear, / and be sure nothing from / you ever misses its mark, / but letter writing has been / very difficult to me after all / the other writing I have had to / do - I mead the mechani- / cal part of it. / I leave here at noon, and / go back to R'dean tomorrow / but I take my sister Edith / down with me, so that I / shall not be alone. / It is angel kind of you / to offer to come down & / see me, but I must not / have the pleasure, for / I must settle at once / to hard work, which I could / not do if I felt you / were in the house, my / darling. I shall have / been nearly 4 weeks away / from it, and must make / up for that. How I hope / you are the better for your / journey in search of health. / I was sad to hear of your / beloved mother so poorly, but / I will hope it is a normal / cold, which works its wicked / will and then leaves one. / My dear love to her, please. I have just had my cold, / but not so violent a one / as hers. John Kipling told / me how he missed her at / Clouds, and how kindly you / filled her place. I was so / glad he had been over to / you - he seems refreshed / by the visit, and he needed / refreshment. / I had Margaret's children / with me for six weeks in Aug:/ & Sept: and was very glad of / it. Margaret & Jack are the / better for their time abroad. I / have been with them for a week / now, to my joy. / I will try to date one of / those letters for you, dear. which / which you mark as possibly written / at one time & I fancy it was / another - but you may be right. / I have lately been to Birming- / ham, to his old school, and / completed a list of dates about / that which I wanted to do. / John tells me Cynthia / looks well - may the reality / be true. With blessings / on you, new & old, / You loving unforgetting, Georgie