| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Valence, to her relatives, regarding continued enforced idleness; meeting with Miss Benett; she likes to meet Amelia as she has no friends in Valence; they met at the Champ de Mars, overlooking the Rhône, but were bitten by mosquitoes; strong scirocco, but weather has improved; she has a fine view and a north-facing room, so is not too bad; three blind masseurs have arrived at the Séminaire and are to take over the care of the patients; she thinks they have come from the School of Re-education at Lyon, and pities them; the masseur-chef is to set up his own lucrative establishment; Dr. Vittoz' kindness in giving his assistants liberty to make their own decisions comes more from lethargy than indulgence; Miss Benett was offered a room of her own and important cases to treat with vibration, but then Dr. Jacquin changed his mind, and Dr. Vittoz vacillates from day to day; she might move to Lyon and is to visit a doctor there to see if he will adopt her treatment; it is easier to be transferred from one hospital to another in a region than to enter one from the outside; Amelia still has not heard from Aix; there is a projected American hospital in Valence in which she might be able to help for the summer, but she does not want to make a binding engagement in case something more appropriate turns up; she does not hold out much hope for Aix; she has had a kind but ultimately hopeless note from Mlle. Vernaz at Chambéry; showing Jacques Delattre how to make a paper lampshade for his Boy Scout sale; she is trying to make him do some work instead of ordering his sister around; he has begun to be less spoilt and behave in a gentlemanly fashion; his sister is nice but is being worn out through acting as the servant to the family; Mme. Delattre says it is too expensive to have a proper maid, though she takes in lodgers, but Mlle. Delattre could be earning money with her good education and thus the household could be better off; they also help find lodgings for Parisian children sent away from the bombardment; still no news from Aix; three Red Cross trains have arrived in Valence so if she wishes to act she should do so now while the hospitals are full; the French are full of delays; the Americans shocked them by taking the establishment at Les Baumes, near Valence, and having the whole thing settled in 24 hours; 'it seems that an American here said at table, "The war must be finished by Sep.; we won't have it drag on in this fashion." Well, they shd. have come in earlier in the day, before administrations treated the subject as a permanency'; 'Mme. D[elattre] said that the loss of doctors at the front is very often due to their own conduct in the rear. Again and again she has heard men say, "Wait till he's at the front. He'll pay for treating us as he has done. He's a marked man." As a hospital represents every variety of regiment, the penalty can easily be accomplished during an offensive sooner or later'; the Delattres have lost 8 friends at the front in the past 6 weeks. [Letter breaks off without signature] |