AIN L. M. B. SALMON]

I have (of course) been getting letters and parcels very badly lately. I
am sending this home by hand, which is not allowed except on Red Cross
business, but this is to ask how Lionel is, so I think I may send it. My
poor Bet! What anxiety for her! This spring weather is making me long to
be at home, and when people tell me the crocuses are up in the
park!--well, you know London and the park belong to me! Are the catkins
out? We can get flowers at Dunkirk, but not here.

Not a word of war news, because that wouldn't be fair. A shilling wire
about Lionel would satisfy me--just "Better, and Bet well," or something
of that sort.

Always, my dear,
Your loving,
S. MACNAUGHTAN.

P.S.--Your two letters and Bet's have just come. To be in touch with you
again is _very_ pleasant. I can't tell you what it was like to sit down
to a pretty, clean breakfast to-day with my letters beside me. Someone
brought them here early.

I heard to-day that I am going to be decorated by the King of the
Belgians, but don't spread this broadcast, as anything might happen in
war.

* * * * *

_20 March._--I met an Englishman belonging to an armoured car in Dunkirk
a couple of days ago. He told me that the last four days' fighting at La
Bassee has cost the British 13,000 casualties. Three lines of holes in
the ground, and fighting only just beginning again! Bet's fiance has
been shot through the head, but is still alive. My God, the horror of it
all! And England is still cheerful, I hear, and is going to hold
race-meetings as usual.

At the station to-day I saw a mad man, who fought and struggled. I
thought madmen raved. This one fought silently, like a man one sees in a
dream. Another soldier shook all over like an old man. Many were blind.

"On the whole," someone said to me in England, "I suppose you are having
a good time."

There is a snowstorm to-day, and it is bitterly cold. It is very odd how
many small "complaints" seem to attack one. I can't remember the day out
here when I felt well all over.

Last night some Belgians came in to dinner. It was like old times trying
to get things nice. I had some flowers and a tablecloth. I believe in
making a contrast with the discomfort I see out here. We forced open a
piano, and had some perfect music.

_21 March._--The weather is brighter to-day; the sound of firing is more
distant; it is possible to think of other things besides the wa