I was not able to write to you for Christmas but I am determined not to let New Year come without wishing you a very ‘Happy New Year’ and many returns of it in which all here join. Mr Weale is in Paris
Bernie encloses a card[1] which he asked me to send on Christmas but I could not
I had the pleasure of seeing Frank this week He is growing so stout but is looking very well and is very happy at Reading[2]p2I have now a bit of good news for you – Ethel is going to join Les Dames de St André[3] You who know me so well will understand how happy I am first in having my first boy called to the Priesthood and now my first girl to be a Nun Pray that she may have a true vocation.
I am sorry that Bernie shows no indication for anything but play. He will be 16 next St Mark’s day[4] and it will soon be time for him to turn to something or other. John is going up for Matriculation[5] at the London University next June, and his papa has promised him a gold watch if he passes in honours he was eighteen on St John’s day.[6] I think that I told you that he and Willie werep3going up for the Oxford examination[7] last May but they caught the measles just a week before and so could not go up. I had a terrible time of it eight of them took them even Cyril who lives in London. Frank and Sybil were the only ones who escaped. Frank at Reading and Sybil at Folkestone.[8]
It quite undid all the good I received from my trip in Belgium,[9] and was in the doctors hands from the 9th of August till Cyril’s birthday the 22nd of December so you see I had a long time of it taking medicine three times a day. Those blessed doctors insisted on extracting all my remaining teeth so here I am with a beautiful set of teeth so I am quite young againp4I do not know exactly when Ethel will leave, but Mr Weale has promised my confessor,[10] though much against his will, to let her go at Easter if possible.[11] At first he said that he would not give her a penny even for her outfit and now he says that he will see what he can do. I am afraid that it will be very little. He ought to pay a pension for the two years Postulancy[12] but I am sure that he won’t. I dont like Ethel going without the pension for fear that she would feel bound in honour to stay even if she had no desire to do so. Say a prayer that all may come right
Clapham Common[13]
S.W.