Leskovik
1 Dec. 1913
My dear Gertrude.

I’ve just got your letter from Alexandria – where the East began to touch you = I passed it (Alexandria) many times, going to Cairo & so on – but never stayed there. But well can I picture you and your cabman and the cafedfi – you & I would voyage in peace & joy – for it is just those little things by the way that I also like & look for.

Well my dear – I wonder where you are – still at Damascus I should think – no not when you get this – you will now be travelling out in the desert going south to the tribes & the ruins – peace go with you –

As for the commission, it should by rights have died yesterday, but still we sit & talk - & I hope we may agree – The Frenchman can have his fill of eloquence – its wonderful how fine words soften things – “humanité” – “accord” – “lumiere” – “frère” – etc etc etc – He has been pushed up a bit by Paris, and just now I have left him to talk with the Italian delegate – And when they have unloaded all their stuff, and quarrelled violently they will both come as of old to me, and I’ll try to pick at some little grains of agreement – it moves – but does it? Yes I think so. Maps may be a delight to you – I can see you poring over logarithms with the whole determination of “the famous traveller” – But here I have nearly killed my topographer – a dear little sapper full of life & quietness and energy – He has climbed snow peak after snow peak – been drenched & frozen & lost – so not like your adventure in the Alps of which you spake at Rounton – but lost to me – He’s done splendidly, but he’s nearly through – cold fever Lord knows what – and now he sits & copies & arranges & dreams of “trig points” swinging triangulation & such things – It makes one pleased (though I don’t know why) that little King is so plainly worth ten of his German colleague – fat, prone to drink, dizzy on hills, lazy on plains, making a god of his belly.

But the thought of what happens next lives with me. I hold by Greek troops till the spring – European officials of the rights sort – a few troops - & gendarmes – and above all a friendly arrangement with Greece – if not then killings & bands & comitadfis whom my soul abhors –

Good luck go with you my dear famous traveller – I so often think of you wonder about you – wish you well – want to talk to you –

Dick.

I hope when next I write to be able to say leave the country on such & such a day