Nov. 26. Red Barns Coatham, Redcar. Dearest Mother. I forgot to tell you that Smith wants to know if he may take the curtain in Papa's room to cover your sofa withal. The difficulty seems to be that when Papa comes back he will find no curtain in his room but perhaps that might be met by putting up the blue curtains which came out of my sitting room until the right chintz is ready. Write me a line tomorrow evening to say if that may be done.
The little girls and I had a peaceful evening together. They appeared about half past 6 and I read them selections from Stanley's letters by which they were much interested. We looked out his route in the map. Molly was so enthusiased that she carried an atlas and the Times up to the nurses and expounded it all to Lizzie. Elsa had great difficulties with her knitting. The stitches kept dropping in the most unaccountable way and had to be picked up from the very bottom of the cuff. We could not imagine how it happened, every now and then a great hole was discovered to our horror! Ever your very affectionate daughter Gertrude