Mountain Lodge Hong Kong. Wed. Ap. 7. Dearest Mother. After all we have had 48 hours here for our boat did not get off yesterday and they telephoned up to us from the P&O office that they were off at midday today. It has been very pleasant, the Blakes most kind and I haven't at all regretted the 2 days in a comfortable house with good food for Hugo. He is quite well, but he still looks thin and rather pulled down - much better since Monday. Hong Kong, you know, is a mountain, and this house is up on top of it, 1300 ft above the sea, with a perfectly enchanting view over miles of sea and islands and the rocky mainland of China. The house is quite new, barely furnished indeed, I only have one chair in my room! But on the other hand I have 2 verandahs of sea and mountain. The garden, just planted, lies in terraces between the little knobs of the hill top which are covered with red canna and a flame red wild azalea, most exquisite. We came up on Monday after lunch and were welcomed by the girl, Olive Blake, who is very attractive and charming and on the point of being married. Presently in came Lady Blake, a large lady with flashing eyes who has, I believe, a reputation for taking little interest in her guests, if they don't happen to please her. We, however, have pleased! and she has been most agreeable and loquacious. One Wilkinson is also staying here, of the Chinese Consular Service, recovering from an illness, a pleasant pussycat man. And there's a very nice ADC, Sir John Keene. The Governor is an Irishman, very polite, very conversational, talking with a little air of importance - the importance of a statesman's - about his plague measures and of how devoted to him, bien entendu, are the Chinese. I believe they are, the whole family have taken a great deal of trouble to know the Chinese and have made friends with them - Olive talks Chinese. But on a hasty judgement I should say that this Governor was not quite up to sample. We had a very pleasant evening. Yesterday morning Olive took us down to shop; you go down in a monstrous steep funicular and their [sic] was a difference of 5° between the top and the bottom of it. Oh, we saw such exquisite things! but you should be a millionaire to shop here, for you want to buy everything and everything costs a fortune. I wish I had £1000 to spend! Every Chinaman has the hands of an artist, wonderful long thin hands with very pointed fingers. I find myself gazing at the hands that hold the jade bowls, the apple green and the peach blossom porcelain, instead of at the things themselves. We spent a lazy afternoon writing letters and sitting in the sun in the garden. It's still very hot, the sun, but the air is quite cool, cold at night and we have a fire in the drawing room. The first coming out of tropics is wonderfully nice. We shall probably be wishing for a little more warmth presently, but here and at this moment of the year, the temperature is perfection. A young man called Robinson (I think) dined, Consular Service, very intelligent and nice. And I'm going to stay with the Blakes in Ireland, and Olive is coming to see me in London, where she could be settled next winter with her guardsman, and we're all going to be bosom friends. The parent Blakes are furiously Irish, by the way, specially Milady. She never loses an opportunity of exalting the honour of her country - to the detriment of ours - and I say humbly that I'm only a Saxon and can't understand the Celtic mind. Heaven forgive me! for I understand quite well and it's she who doesn't understand that she comically gives herself and "me conthry [sic]" (as you wd say!) away with every word. For the big nations don't bother about being understood and a ruling people don't care.
I have only looked into the Minor Moralist. It's a delightful book to hold and to handle, light, big print, charming I think. And I very much like the discreet outside with the fleurs de lys. Was that your idea and a subtle allusion?

I'm sending you a blank cheque. Ever your very affectionate daughter Gertrude.