The Grove School
Highgate
London N
Sunday Jan 16th 1916
My darling Mother
Thank you very much for your letter which I was very pleased to get last night. I am so glad you have heard from Boo; Det's postcard telling me about it came at tea-time yesterday.
My bedroom is not a very nice one; it is said to be the coldest in the house, but I have slept there twice before and I don't think it is really any worse than the one next door that I had last term. Kathleen Moore, the girl I sleep with, is 15. Her mother is Japanese; her father, who was English, is dead. She came to England when quite small and has been brought up here so that there is very little Japanese about her. She is an excitable, nervous child and is always dissolving into tears, I believe, so I expect I shall have a damp term!
My rheumatism is practically all right again, it was very nasty all Thursday and Friday but began to go off yesterday and now I hardly feel it at all.
I do miss Baby, it is frightfully dull not having her to do things for and play with.
Your trunk arrived Saturday morning and stood the journey excellently thanks to Brailsford's neat mending.
I expect Miss Lacey will send you my report soon is she hasn't lost it. Do you know I am really quite worried about Miss Lacey; I was shocked to see her looking so I'll when I arrived. You know she was laid up for nearly a week at the end of last term with a very severe sick headache, well she told me that she had another very bad one in the early part of the holidays and that for some time afterwards she seemed to lose her memory, so that nothing much got done in the way of sending off bills etc until Miss Fletcher came back last week. And do you know she had forgotten all about sending you my bill between Wednesday and Friday, because she solemnly told me when I gave her your note that Miss Fletcher must have made it out and sent it because she had not done so! But I saw the envelope with my own eyes and it was Miss Lacey's handwriting on it and I think she wrote the bill too, didn't she? Anyway, she must be in a bad state of health to forget everything in that way. And she looks dreadfully I'll, so haggard and grey, I shall be extremely surprised if she gets through this term without being ill even though she is doing very little teaching. She never will have a doctor except Dr Vance-Knox occasionally, and I have no faith in her, for anything except minor ailments. Of course Miss Lacey looked ill all last term, but you know one gets accustomed to seeing her like that, and one notices it much more after having been away from her for some time; still I do think she looks worse than ever this term. I really hope she will have a breakdown and then she would have to rest, for she is just the sort of person to go on working until she kills herself rather than take a rest. I suppose she can't afford a throughout his rest and proper medical treatment. Nobody seems to consider that she is really ill, but I's sure she is, don't you think it sounds like it?
I had such a nice letter from Mrs Wood thanking me for the photo I sent her. She sent her love to you and the girls.
Will you send me Rosie’s address when you next write, I don't think I've got it with me, and I want to write to her again before long.
Several people are not back yet. Four arrived yesterday and one on Friday, but there at least five more to come I think.
Miss Hamilton has left the school, though she comes up as a visiting teacher; she has taken a small flat in Kentish Town with Hester Grierson, they are very friendly. She has asked me to go and see them one day when they are properly settled in. Miss Grierson still comes as a visiting teacher; Monday's her day so I expect I shall see her tomorrow. She is probably very busy this term working for her exam.
Helen Black has been made a mistress, and Sylvia Gillbanks, an old girl, has come back as a viginti; she was the girl I slept with my first term and I always loathed her, so you can imagine it was rather a horrid shock to come back and find her here; however I shan't have to see anything of her.
The photographs of Baby have been very much admired, and everyone thinks she looks very bright and interesting for four months old.
I hope you have not got it as cold at home as we have here.
The other day a tap was turned on in the basement and they couldn't turn it off, and it took so long for Fairman and Mann to find the main and turn off the water from that house that there was a foot of water pretty nearly in the basement and it put the furnaces out.
How much did they make at Evesham by that Children's Pageant? Did you ever hear? I suppose Mr & Mrs "Haynes-Rudge" are married by now. When will they show their faces in Evesham I wonder?
Love to Mela if she has arrived, and a special kiss to Baby.
With love to you all from your affectionate daughter.
Juliet E Sladden
