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CHECKENDON COURT,
CHECKENDON, READING.
18th March 1921.
Dear John,
We were much grieved to learn of your troubles. My know-
ledge of particulars being so slight, I cannot offer you more
than our general sympathy; & that is hardly necessary, for you know
already you have it. I do gather, however, that Mrs. Grosvenor's
condition is very serious; but whether you have hopes of amendment
I have not heard. What you & Susie hope for, we hope for for you.
It was very kind of you to have Mark to stay with you. He
was much interested in his talks with you; but felt, I think, that
he ought not to have saddled himself upon you in the circumstances -
not to talk of the contretemps of the train missing.
It was more than good of you (but very like you) to write to me
about him. He has many good qualities I know; but the war has given
a cast of sadness to his outlook on life which sometimes worries me
a little. I fancy there will be no better cure than responsibility
in a hum-drum little sphere of his own, with a regular routine, &
results traceable to his own efforts. I sympathise with him about
the metaphysics of the city. Sometimes the whole thing appears
to me to be a preposterous illusion & the contradictions explanations
of the economists mere empty logomachy; but then I see
Bob Brand & others growing fat & comfortable, so I suppose that