My darling,

… I certainly think that the Cottage has done its job for the children as until to-day you could not have had more favourable conditions and yet ‘boredom’ has never been far away. Of course one might argue that it is because we are leaving, but I think it would be worse if we weren't.

… My mind has been running a lot on leaving this country. It is extraordinary how mixed my feelings are. I feel I should be very sad, and sometimes I am when I hear the thrush or the blackbird singing and expect to miss them. But though people warn one about the treachery and so on of Americans, I feel people are very much alike and that there are qualities of people here which are just as nasty (even one's own!). I hope we can get a chance to talk freely. Yet it is difficult to know what we can say that we have not already been over …