Bourg
Hotel de France
20th October 1899
My dearest Husband,
You will be expecting a longer letter from me, & I may as well make out some of my time in this lively place by writing you a letter. After I had written to you on Wednesday I went round to Father’s; he was not up, not having been very well for a few days, & I only stayed a few minutes, as Fannie Joe told me that Fred was in Paris & wanted us to meet him at the office at twelve o’clock & lunch with him. I was so pleased to have the chance of seeing him, so went back for Polly, whose head was better by this time, & we drove down to the new office, met Fred & Joe & lunched with them at Darras’. Both of them were very well & cheerful, Fred had been travelling about France & was going back to Brussels that night, indeed I think he only waited to see us. After lunch we went to see Mme Moudon, a friend of Polly’s & then took a tramway back & went to see Father & had a long chat with him. I find him a good deal altered & aged; his memory seems as clear as ever, but he looks shrunk & more feeble, then of course he has not been quite the thing since he came back from Dieppe; he was feeling rather sorry for himself, but cheered up a good deal after we had been there a little while, & seemed very pleased to see us.
We dined at our pension which seems very comfortable & clean, we have a nice large bedroom with two beds in. I have tried to make enquiries about prices next year, but they do not seem to have fixed them yet, only the general impression seems to be that they will be very high. The Exhibition buildings are getting on fast, but there is a lot to do yet; it will be a huge place, extending quite a mile or more. I had a comfortable journey down here, a compartment to myself in a corridor train for a great part of the way, & the weather has so far been lovely. Since I began this epistle I have been up to the asylum & done my business, so that is a good job over. I shall not be able to leave here till 7.39; an express which would have got me back to Paris tonight, was taken off a few days ago, so I must have the night journey. I was pleased to get your letter, enclosing George’s, yesterday. Polly & I think of leaving Paris on Tuesday & staying one night at Rouen & crossing on Wednesday. I must write & ask Fanny if it will suit for me to go there that day. I have been buying some pictorial post-cards to send off to Mary, she is making a collection of them, some of the foreign ones are really very pretty. I hope my dear little Babsie is a good girl & does not miss me too much, kiss her for me. With much love to the children & yourself,
I am, dear
Your loving wife
E. N. Sladden
