Feb : 7 : '93 My darling, / Pamela & Fräulein / were here this morning, / and to my / sorrow told me that you were / still full of anxiety about your / dear little boys. I had been / thinking that you were going / along the steady path of con- / valescence, and had no idea / that you were still suffering / keen anxiety. Thank heaven / that every day bears us nearer / to the Summer, and away / from the cruel Winter which / aggravates every woe. / Is it not strange that little / girls are as a rule so much / stronger than boys! perhaps / it is because of the / great demand na / ture so often makes upon them / later on. Poor, poor little / men - it is a sad picture / of their state. I had no / notion that they were still / in their little couches of / suffering - I had thought of / them ramping about the next / series & chafing to be let / out. But Pamela said / that the news this morning / were good - may they soon be / better! Dr. Barlow I only / heard of about a month ago, / and then he was the ? / of saving the life of the baby / of a friend of ours - I hear that / he is wonderfully good. / What an extraordinary / shuffling of the pieces on the / board, that your husband / should have had so much to / do with his poor little / and you have to be compelled / to hold away! The hardest / lesson to learn is to lie low, / - I think - but it comes over / and over again in life. / I was thankful to hear from / both Pamela & Fräulein that / you were not really ill your- / self - but I seem to know that / you are just living on the / stimulant of intense feeling, and I pray you for the sake of / all who love you, not to treat / yourself as if you were well, / but to cherish that Mary / that you don't care for as much / as we do, and nurse, and even / feed her, so that she may be / strong enough to meet her boys / when they are better, and give / them the joy of her companion- / ship, and may be able to com- / fort her husband's heart when / he must leave them & her. / I wish I could have seen your / father, but I could not. It will / do him a world of good I do / not doubt to get to the warm / South. My dear love to your / mother - I shall long for news / of you. God bless you, darling, / and strengthen you. / Ever your most loving Georgie / B-J.