Dec : 19 : /89 My darling, / please thank / your husband for the / game which he very kindly / sent on Tuesday. I have / been thinking of you often, / and wondering if you were / at Stanway again - I sup- / pose it is so. Of Madeline / I heard within a few days / via Margaret - how happy / she seems with her baby. / I think ofetn too of Clouds, / of the house I mean, whose / sad anniversary / is drawing near. You will / feel quite patriarchal / you & your husband, in / receiving all your family / for Christmas. / I am becoming a recluse / - this winter has found out / my cough and keeps me in - / doors almost entirely - some- / times it makes me feel / rather morbid, but as long / as I know that perhaps / I shan't really become it! / I am watching Edward like / a cat does a mouse, for he / is working against time & / often has brief turns of ex- / haustion which I have learnt / to understand & to counteract / one way or another. / He has decided not to go / to R'dean for Christmas, as / he had intended - for he / is in a grove of work just / now which he says it would / jolt him out of - and / moreover he really cannot / spare the few days. So I / think I shall go from / Tuesday to Saturday with / Margaret & her husband, leav- / ing Phil in charge of his / father. How funny the / changes rung upon the dif- / ferent members of a family / are - now this combination, / now that. / i hope you are stronger dear, / and that there is a little / more of you altogether in / this world. You were too / fragile when I saw you / last. - Isn't the new ?- / son volume a beauty? One / trembles for him now his / brother Browning has gone. / This is but a note of / love - to say I am ever / Your very loving. / Georgie