May to David Office 6. 10. 17.
My dear David,
I have changed my plans for this afternoon. Maud’s dressmaker can’t see me as she is off to a funeral. There is no moon next week, so as it means waiting till next Saturday afternoon. I am going to my own dressmaker at Sydenham this afternoon instead. I am looking too shabby for words. Maud will have to do her own shopping by herself. After seeing the dressmaker I shall have to hurry home, to be busy. Mama has had the blues this week, and has scarcely done any work, and we suddenly hear that Mac (Miss Bradfield) is coming tomorrow, so we shall have to buck up. Thank goodness; it will do Mama good. I had a letter from Muriel this morning asking for news of you. She says she wrote you a long letter recently. Ethel is buying a lot of flannelette today and is asking Mama to make it up into nighties for a poor woman she knows. This, too, will do Mama good. Nothing like work. I wonder every night if you have had the blues during the day. Guess you have. Then I wonder if your wound is any better, and conclude it is never going to be well any more, at any rate, not when I get you to myself.
Did I tell you the Office is divided into sections so that when a raid warning comes we each go to our special place of safety. The Actuary is the head of our section, and during the whole time we are downstairs he chats most affably to all, making no distinction; but wait till the all-clear whistle goes. He never assumes airs, but somehow he wraps a different atmosphere round him and walks off. No one would dare speak to him then, and he would not think of speaking to anyone. Isn’t it strange how folks can alter without actually looking any different. You could understand it in the case of uniforms, especially very good ones. That reminds me, I hope you have received some clothes by now. You must be looking delapidated, especially with your bandaged head and French Tommy’s cap; what you might call “the limit”.
I cannot stop any longer now as I want to leave early, so Goodbye, will write next week.
May.