| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Valence, to her relatives, regarding stranger preaching sermon at well-attended Sunday service; visit to Traffey and Chauvel at Hospital 201; they expect to return to the Annexe this week; visit from Landré, now patient at the Hôpital Général; his knee is in plaster but much improved; he has taken her greetings to Vergnoux, whose bone cavity in the leg is starting to fill; Mme. Soureillat is not to come to the annexe this afternoon - she is relying too much on Amelia to run things; some duties were nearly omitted this week because each thought the other was doing them; Amelia would not mind so much, but sometimes Mme. Soureillat is using the time at the hospital to write private letters, or to play draughts with the patients; the annexe can be a trial to the 201; Mme. Soureillat has a tendency to spoil some of the patients; she allows some of the patients to go to the cinema, meaning that the door has to be left unlocked for them, and Amelia has trouble in making them remember to lock up when they come home; Vayr and Taillefer, she suspects, do not necessarily go only to the cinema, and they take advantage of their trusted position; they annoy the nun, and Amelia annoys Mme. Soureillat who thinks she is too perfect, then undoes some of her work; because she keeps being given more duties, the patients see her busy more than they see Mme. Soureillat occupied, and see her as fairer, without favourites; Trossat in particular was grateful to her for some small services, and over-praised her to Mme. Soureillat; Mme. Thivolle at the bureau has been complaining of Mme. Chabaud's carelessness, but Mme. Soureillat says that if Mme. Thivolle interferes she will leave; she is not a good administrator; she was calmed down by the thought that the war was over and some of her problems would eventually solve themselves; admission of Captain Dobinson, whose foot was crushed by a buffer closing on it between two railway carriages near Valence; he was a school companion of Duncan Mackie, Mrs. Thin's nephew; description of him; he volunteered right at the beginning of the war and has been in France and Belgium ever since; he was on a train to Italy with 50 officers and 700 men, as reinforcements are now being sent everywhere and men are being asked to volunteer for further service; Captain Dobinson speaks French and has a 'pleasant, contented manner'; she is less impressed by his insistence on playing draughts and bridge on a Sunday; her efforts to make him afternoon tea; she will keep his odd sock and fill it with fruit for him for Christmas; Mme. Soureillat has yet to collect money and presents for the soldiers' celebrations; there is a rumour that the hospitals will close about a month after the peace is signed, which will be in May or June. [Letter breaks off without signature] |