| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, 7 Via Venti Settembre, Rome, to her relatives, regarding continued bad weather; visit to Mrs. Green and her baby boy; he tires her out, but has amazing suppleness; his sister Cecilia quietly watched everything as a baby, but he hides his face in his hands; her certificate from Mr. Green has arrived with a very gracious note wishing her well; the wording of the certificate is reproduced here; thus ends her Roman tuition; he has recently admitted to being sarcastic, saying that it is a useful method with choirboys, but he ought to restrict himself in the use of it; visit of Mrs. Rowat Smith and Mrs. Fenwick; visit of Mr. Craig, the artisan missionary from Old Calabar; they could do nothing for him as it takes two hours to boil a kettle of water upstairs and there is no heat left in the gas downstairs; Aunt and Amelia took him to the club, where he was to convey a message from a sailor of a torpedoed crew to Miss Palmer; he said he would go to the station restaurant for his evening meal and they could not say no, for they knew the larder was nearly empty; instead they plan to make him sandwiches for the train; he is very slow and should be sent 'to the back of the front just to learn how to act under smart military orders'; his compartment was crowded, but that is what rail travel is like just now; he is going back to be missionary of the Denburn Mission Church; he would like to go back to Old Calabar but also wants to return to his wife Elsie and the girls; men at the front who are risking so much cannot respect clergy who risk so little; home mission posts should be given to those who understand the people at home; Mr. Campbell Wall was going to Genoa by the same train; the Wall type is good but goody-goody; he is very selfish and 'killed his first wife by living on her personal sacrifices' - even when they were poor he had to have good food at the table and she had nothing; she has been to the Mission Sanitaire to find out if there is a problem in the delay in Paris replying to her letter; there are probably more pressing problems in Paris because of the fighting on the French front; she thinks the director has also written on her behalf; all the Presbytery members are coming to the meeting, despite Uncle's discouragement; they all want to discuss the Leghorn matter, which Uncle does not want; the whole problem goes back to a lawsuit created by Dr. Miller's brother, and the solution is not obvious; the Continental Committee wants Uncle to guide them in the matter, despite the fact that Aunt and Amelia thought there were set rules for such things; Uncle's habit of sending all the money he can to the Committee is short-sighted, for he has not spent money on repairs and maintenance in Rome that would save the Committee a greater expense in years to come; he is still tired after his cold and wants to go away for a week after the Presbytery meeting; he admits now that he should not have spent last summer in Rome and that he needs to get up into the mountains for cool air; Mr. Gibson thinks that Uncle will not even leave Rome if it is destroyed by air raids; he is now keen to make summer arrangements and they are taking advantage of the fact; Amelia has written to Chiesa, Val Malenco, above Sondrio, a village 'at the back of the Piz Palü'; Sondrio is on the electric line from Milan to Como to Colico; Chiesa is three hours' drive up the valley; the combination of scirocco and rain is awful; the organ has been tuned and overhauled at a reasonable price; she hopes she will be out of Rome before the heat challenges her scanty summer wardrobe. |