P.M.S.S. City of Rio Thursday 17. Dearest Mother. I want to write you a line just to thank you for your letters and all your news. The last thing you told me was that you were going to London and I was very glad to hear it - it's absolutely necessary to open the windows of one's mind from time to time, it gets so frightfully stuffy at Redcar. I feel as if I shall have renewed my mental atmosphere enough to last for years by the time we get back! My great desire now is to see the States; M and I would much like to go there some time. This is being great fun. We are extremely merry and enjoy life immensely; we even rather like the sea when we don't have too much of it uninterruptedly. One makes friends with such funny people; there is a lot of amusement to be got out of one's fellow traveller even when he is hardly any different to ordinary as Sue wd say. Maurice is extremely popular and everybody on the ship is very kind to us. We have struck up a friendship with the Captain who is a delightful person. Our two Englishmen are very nice, but I'm afraid they will leave us at Honolulu. It's such a comfort to be so good a sailor; I expect we shall have a pretty good tossing before we leave Japan, this ship rolls at every ripple. Everyone says Hugo was looking better when he went back to Oxford; I was so glad to have his note, I will write to him again from Japan. Goodbye, dearest Mother; I hope you are well and taking care of yourself. Don't go to Clarence too often! I wonder if any of you are going away at Easter - Papa ought to take a holiday I should think. We have so often longed for him to share our adventures. Ever your very affectionate daughter Gertrude
I can't telegraph to you from Honolulu because there's no cable! it does seem odd.