!) Well, I really _must_ be going. I shall be able to
tell all my friends I've _seen_ you now and been able to cheer you up a
little. _Poor_ girl! _So_ unfortunate! Terribly cheerful, aren't you?
Don't seem to mind a bit. Would you kindly ring for the lift? I find
these stairs _so trying_. I've enjoyed myself so much. Goodbye." Exit
(goodby-ee). In its way it was amusing at first, but one day I sent for
the small porter, Tommy, aged twelve (I had begun to sympathise with
the animals in the Zoo). "Tommy," I said, "if you _dare_ to let anyone
come up and see me unless they're _personal_ friends, you won't get that
shell head I promised you. Don't be put off, make them describe me.
You'll be sorry if you don't."

Tremendous excitement one day when I went out for my first drive in a
car sent from the Transport Department of the Red Cross. Two of the
nurses came with me, and I was lifted in by the stalwart driver. "A
quiet drive round the park, I suppose, Miss?" he asked. "No," I said
firmly, "down Bond Street and then round and round Piccadilly Circus
first, and then the Row to watch the people riding" (an extremely
entertaining pastime). He had been in the Argentine and "knew a horse if
he saw one," and no mistake.

The next day a huge gilded basket of blue hydrangeas arrived from the
"bird" flower shop in Bond Street, standing at least three feet high,
the sole inscription on the card being, "From the Red Cross driver." It
was lovely and I was extremely touched; my room for the time being was
transformed.

I was promised a drive once a week, but they were unfortunately
suspended as I had an operation on July 31st for the jumping sciatic
nerve and once more was reduced to lying flat on my back. There was a
man over the mews who beat his wife regularly twice per week, or else
_she_ beat him. I could never discover which, and used to lie staring
into the darkness listening to the "sounds of revelry by night," not to
mention the choicest flow of language floating up into the air. I was
measured for a pair of crutches some time later by a lugubrious
individual in a long black frock coat looking like an undertaker. I
objected to the way he treated me, as if I were already a "stiff,"
ignoring me completely, saying to the nurse: "Kindly put the case
absolutely flat and full length," whereupon he solemnly produced a tape
measure!

I was moved to a nursing home for the month of August, as the hospital
closed for cleaning, and