In France
10 Dec 1915
My dear Father
It made me rather anxious when I still did not hear from you, for I knew from Mother that you were not very well. I hope you have recovered by now and that you are taking as much care of yourself as possible. When the letter did come it quite made up for the delay: of course I knew you would write in the spirit in which you did. I didn’t know that you and I both “took the plunge” so nearly at the same age. And you did not remark on another likeness: namely that we both crossed the Channel for the purpose!
Well, you will understand how anxious I am to bring your new daughter to see you: and I know quite well that it won’t take long for you to adopt her quite fully. I am feeling very contented today for I have just received her photograph. It is not an absolutely recent one, but it is very like her as she is at present. Rosie had not given it me before because she was not satisfied with it and was waiting to see how an enlargement from an amateur photo turned out. It was not a success so she sent me this one. Of course, nobody is ever satisfied with their own photo; but it is good enough for me! I wish I could let you see it but that is far too much of a sacrifice to be contemplated. I will ask her if she has another copy to send to you.
I have had very nice letters from Arthur’s and Mela, Uncle Fred and Aunt Lottie and am replying to them all at a great rate. I am so much better than Boo in the matter of speedy writing that I manage, even out here, to write to R more often than he used to write to Mela and to pack in the other correspondence as well. And I don’t have the heavy bill for postages that Boo used to have!
I squirmed under the heel of your terrible joke. The family assembled ought to have seen it: true. But I feel it gave me a proper fate in having to be explained!
Much love to all from
Your affectionate son
George
