Aug : 8 : 1888 My darling, / Another year has / whirled past and here is your / wedding day again - or rather / will be tomorrow. My dear / love to you on it, and may / you see many happy years / to come. I don't know where / you are, but address to Cadog- / an Square knowing this will / be sent on to you if you are / away. We have been here / a fortnight today and it / feels much longer than that. / Edward & Phil soon re- / turned to London, but we shall / have them again be- / fore long. Margaret & / I had one week alone, and / to our astonishment the time / went quicker than when the others / were here - even then it flew by. / We seemed to be always doing / what we had just done that time / yesterday - going to bed or having / dinner or breakfast or going out. / What's to be done to put a drag / on the wheel of time? I thought / only we elder ones felt it, but / lately I've heard the young ones / mention it too. The one comfort / we have is the old one: "we've / got all there is." / I have been reading at this / late date the Letters of Mrs / Carlyle, with profound inter- / est. She was a clever woman. / I'm also reading a Dumas and / a Miss Austen, and I do a / little viewing and some talking / and a bit of thinking & occa- / sionally I feel - & so the days / go. Margaret & I come up to Lon- / don on the 18th for some final / shopping, & then return here / till the end of all things. Be- / yond that I cannot see clear- / ly the loss seems so great - but no doubt with time / will come the strength to go / through it, and after she is / married there will come an / adjustment of old relationships / and, please God, the beginning / of new ones quite as sweet. / Make much of the time, my darling, / when your children ? up - / on you and are all on your own. / Margaret has had a happy / letter from dear Madeline - how / happy she looked on her wedding / day. didn't she? I think part / of one's feeling about people getting / married comes from the fact that / we can follow them very little / further into their change than / we could if they were dead. The / real life of married people is so hidden / from others - & whether it sinks / or swims outsiders can do little / good. / I suppose you will be going to / Stanway soon: I daresay septem- / ber will be beautiful, & how you / will revel in the country. / Margaret sends her love to you / as you will well believe - and / I am ever & always Yr. loving Georgie