talions of British
suffragettes have arrived at the front, and they warn officers not to be
captured by these!

_12 May._--To-day, when I got to the station, I was asked to remove an
old couple who sat there hand in hand, covered with blood. The old woman
had her arm blown off, and the man's hand was badly injured. We took
them to de Page's hospital.

The firing has been continuous for the last few days, and men coming in
from Ypres and Dixmude and Nieuport say that the losses on both sides
have been enormous. There were four Belgian officers who lived opposite
my villa, whom one used to see going in and out. Last night all were
killed.

At Dixmude the other day the Duke of Westminster went to the French
bureau to get his passport vise. The clerks were just leaving, but he
begged them to remain a minute or two and to do his little business.
They did so, and came to the door to see him off, but a shell came
hurtling in and killed them both, and of a woman who stood near there
was literally nothing left.

Last night ---- and I were talking about the _gossip_, which would fill
ten unpublishable volumes out here.... Why do these people come out to
the front? Give me men for war, and no one else except nuns. Things may
be all right, but the Belgians are horrified, and I hate them to "say
things" of the English. The grim part of it is that I don't believe I
personally hear one half of what goes on and what is being said. They
are afraid of shocking me, I believe.

The craze for men baffles me. I see women, _dead tired_, perk up and
begin to be sparkling as soon as a man appears; and when they are alone
they just seem to sink back into apathy and fatigue. Why won't these mad
creatures stop at home? They _are_ the exception, but war seems to bring
them out. It really is intolerable, and I hate it for women's sake, and
for England's.

The other day I heard some ladies having a rather forced discussion on
moral questions, loud and frank.... Shades of my modest ancestresses! Is
this war time, and in a room filled with men and smoke and drink, are
women in knickerbockers discussing such things? I know I have got to
"let out tucks," but surely not quite so far!

Beautiful women and fast women should be chained up. Let men meet their
God with their conscience clear. Most of them will be killed before the
war is over. Surely the least we can do is not to offer them temptation.
Death and destruction, and horror and wonderful h