Feb 15 Baghdad Belloved Father. I've today received your letter of Dec 7 and Mother's of Dec 11. Oh dear oh dear, I'm so unhappy about Annie. Of all people in the world she was the one whose end I never contemplated. What a staunch and what a Belloved friend we shall lose in her. I feel now how little I've done to show her my love and gratitude. Mother sent me a cutting with a picture of you both at the land workers' meeting which gave me great pleasure - just to see you doing the kind of thing I've seen you doing so often. Her account of the increase of the hospital gives me a vivid picture of another kind. I'm afraid the number of wounded men is not likely to decrease this spring. All the telegrams prepare me for a terrific assault in France. I've also got your address at the Hordon meeting which is excellent. It's so full of ideas and of wise appreciations. When I feel stale I think of your wonderfully fresh mind. There's no doubt you're a very remarkable person and I say it quite without prejudice. The French books have come too - they are delicious. What a family I've got! Well, it's good to have something cheerful to contemplate for there is no satisfaction to be got out of Reueter. The peace with the Ukraine is the worst thing that has happened, it seems to me. I agree with Lady Macmahon who said she thought the Almighty had shown himself disappointingly neutral. Even the I.G.C. who is a rosy optimist, admits that there's nothing to be done but to load river boats and not think about things. He has just been up for a few days, and busy though he was I saw a great deal of him and found him, as always, very cheering. He is the best of good human beings. I dined with him on his ship the last night he was here, the party being Gen. Stuart Wortley and me. We had a very pleasant evening. And one afternoon Sir George and I, hearing of a garden where we could get flower plants, went and looted several baskets full - mine are now growing merrily in their new beds. Yesterday afternoon I rode with Gen. Stuart Wortley through cornfields and palm gardens which are now most exquisite. If you don't have so much green here as in England, you revel far more in what there is. Every blade and leaf is a separate enchantment. And the sun, a friend still, over all. I think I told you I now go out for a couple of hours after lunch, a lazy habit but it makes me feel extremely well. Today I combined business with pleasure and paid a call on Père Leon, abbot of the French monks, and Père Anastase who is a Syrian - he speaks French like a Frenchman, is a great Arabic scholar and for all that has stepped straight out of Chaucer. I went to discuss the buying of MSS for the Indian Govt and the translation of the Shi'ah traditional books, which is a hobby of my own that I'm pressing on the India Office. You see, the first thing in this Shi'ah country is that we should have a real understanding of the things that lie at the bottom of the Shi'ah mind. We all 3 sat together in the parlour overlooking the quiet little monastery court which lies in the heart of Baghdad; we had a delightful talk and as I came home through the incredibly narrow crooked streets - the houses almost touch overhead and the streets wind in and out of them - I had a warm feeling of being part of it all. And so I am, you know; just as much as I'm part of English surroundings. It's a curious sense to have two native lands and to be wound into this one as into that by long links of associations. It made me content with a decision which I've just taken not to accompany Sir Percy to Cairo and Jerusalem [(El Quds esh Sherif, Yerushalayim)] where he's going for a conference. He invited me to come too, bless him, and though it would have been most interesting, I'm not necessary and I think I had better stay here now when the weather's so good and one can work. I shall have to go away in the summer for reasons of health. I'm rather discouraged about Persia because people coming in from there give such terrible accounts of the destitution of the country. You can't travel in a place where there's nothing to eat. England, with Palestine on the way, is another idea, but anyhow there are 3 months still before I need decide. The truth is I have a great longing to see you. We have an overwhelming immediate prospect of distinguished visitors - the whole Chelmsford family, it's really appalling. I've begged Sir Percy to let me escape but he says I must not. I look on the whole matter with abhorrence, and personally I think it's very wrong of them to come. We're too busy as it is.
Goodbye dearest. However many native lands I may have I've only one step-mother and father anyway and I'm therefore ever your devoted daughter Gertrude

I love your description of Rhoda and the hedgehog comparison. Much as I like her, I fully understand. I'm rather a hedgehog too, I think.

The one drawback of England is that I don't want to see any of my kind friends!