Jan: 14 : 1889 My darling, / You know I have / been thinking of you all these / days - and would guess that / I took means to find how / you were though I did not / write to ask you. Your / wonderful mother sent me / a letter of six sheets long / on Friday, and in it she / reassured me about your / state. I can only suppose / that the tremendous ex- / citement of the time pre- / vented any of you from / taking a chill, and must rest / in hope that there will be no / serious reaction. / I know how you must / have wanted to stay with them, / and yet felt it was right / to go - it must be difficult for / you to think of anything else / yet. Again & again it conveys / to me as a fresh shock - it / seems so utterly impossible / that that beautiful mom- / ent of loving and sucess- / ful labour should have dis- / appeared. If it is gone / now I feel as if it had / never been - as if it had / been only a kind of Al- / addins Palace and / work of necromancy. My / dear, dear friends, my sympa- / thy for you is past all words. / Edward went yesterday to / Madeleine's, to see your Father / and found him with a quiet / courageous aspect, which / I fancy he will almost al- / ways keep, but I know he / must feel a kind of agony / at times. And your blessed / Mother - I know how splendid / she will be - but nothing / will make it less than a / sad and great misfortune, / my child, you must / have gone through a life of / anguish in the few minutes, / or seconds, in which you / thought your children were lost / - I wonder your hair did / not turn white with it. / I long for a good talk / with one of you - I want / to know so many things that / letters won't tell. And yet - / one falls back on the blank / fact that the lovely place is / gone - and what use are / words! / Edward's father died / on Saturday - close upon / 87. To our daily life it / will make no difference - / does not that sound sad / about a parent's loss? Those / who love each other ought / not voluntarily to live apart, / or not without trying in / bridge over distance by every means / in their power. Not you does / think? / Do not answer this dear. / I shall hear from you, and you / must have legions of compul- / sory letters to write. This / is only like a loving touch / of the hand - I can wait. / Give my kind regards / to your husband, please, & / say heartfelt congratula- / tions on your escape and / the dear babes - how / could it be that nature / gave no sign to him of / the terrible danger & / distress you were in? It is / a great mystery. / Another thing rejoiced / me - to hear that papers & / "archives" were saved - / though I grieve for Pamela's / & Dorothea's loss of that / kind. What a terrible en- / try in the family annals / will this Twelfth day be. / I think of George too - / how he will feel it! And / dear Madeline, I think you / must all be most thankful / she was away - I fancy / she would have stood the / shock less well than any / of you. But I am so / glad I know so much about / it - I feel as if Clouds had / been all but a living crea- / ture, so closely has it been / associated with the lives / of all you dear ones, / and I can understand so / much of what you are / feeling now. / My darling, I love you, / and caress you in my mind. / Ever your most loving / friend / Georgie