Jan. 19 Dearest Mother. Here is the letter about my summer clothes. It seems a great deal but I know it isn't more than I had last year and they only just lasted me through. Lady MacMahon sent me a lot of things from Egypt. By the way they have been very badly used I think - very discourteously anyhow. She is a nice woman and was endlessly kind to me. If she turns up to see you will you be friendly to her? I've told her you are sometimes to be found in London. I'm feeling awfully tired and done up - I don't know what's the matter. I've been working a great number of hours and getting through dreadfully little, having anaemia of the brain. I'm going to try a course of morning rides to see if excercise [sic] will do any good. I feel just like I was before I had jaundice, yet it would be unnatural to have jaundice again! I expect it's jaundice of the imagination this time. The English mail has missed this week. The last news I've had of you is a delightful long letter from Father dated 6 Dec all about the Cabinet crisis. He seems to have had a happy day with Lord French. I should very much like to know what Bill's ship is - surely you might tell me. Letters from home aren't censored, by the way, so you can write impartially about the Govt. and .. Harmsworth. Poor old Greenwell! Oh dear I hope I shan't live to be 97 but I don't for a moment think I shall. Sir Percy is back from the front, it's very nice having him, and things look pretty bright in Arabia and among the tribes - I wish they looked bright anywhere else. We have just recovered from a day's rain which turned the world into one large mud pie. I've got some india rubber top boots from India which enable me to plunge and slither through the mud comparatively unharmed. I'm sending you under a separate cover some photographs, mainly of Sir Percy and me and Ibn Sa'ud which may amuse you. Ibn Sa'ud is the gigantic man in the white cloak. The above mentioned jaundice of the brain prevents me from writing more tonight. I've been sitting up late over proofs from India all these nights, fearfully tiresome proofs to correct, all Arabic and tribe names and I shall now go to bed and forget about them! Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude