make me comfortable, but
they stayed two hours watching me unpack and making themselves
agreeable! And when I came in from dinner from the cafe, where we now
have our meals (quite decent), she and papa and M.T. drew up a chair for
me to _causer_ in their parlour, to my horror.

At 8 P.M. the town suddenly goes out like a candle; all lights are put
out and the street suddenly empty. After that, at intervals, only
motorcyclists buzz through and regiments tramp past going back to
billets. They sound more warlike than anything. Such a lot are going by
now.

_Easter Sunday_, 3 P.M.--The service at 7 this morning in the theatre
was rather wonderful. Rows of officers and packs of men.

We have been busy in the ward all the morning. I'm off 2-5, and shall
soon go out and take E.'s chocolate Easter eggs to the men in the
hospice. The officers have any amount of cigarettes, chocs., novels, and
newspapers.

A woman came and wept this morning with my billeter over their two sons,
who are prisoners, not receiving the parcels of _tabac_ and _pain_ and
_gateaux_ that they send. They think we ought to starve the German
prisoners to death!

This morning in the ward I suddenly found it full of Gold Hats and Red
Tabs; three Generals and their A.D.C.'s visiting the sick officers.

_Easter Monday._--It is a pouring wet day, and the mud is Flanderish.
Never was there such mud anywhere else. A gunner-major has just been
telling me you get a fine view of the German positions from the
Cathedral tower here, and can see shells bursting like the pictures in
'The Sphere.' He said his guns had the job of peppering La Bassee the
last time they shelled this place, and they gave it such a dusting that
this place has been let severely alone since. He thinks they'll have
another go at this when we begin to get hold of La Bassee, but the
latter is a very strong position. It begins to be "unhealthy" to get
into any of the villages about three miles from here, which are all
heaps of bricks now.

I'm leaving my billet to-morrow, as they want us to be in one house. And
our house is the Maire's Chateau, the palatial one, so we shall live in
the lap of luxury as never before in this country! And have hot baths
with eau-de-Cologne every night, or cold every morning. And the woman is
going to faire our cuisine there for us, so we shan't have to wait hours
in the cafe for our meals. There is only one waiter at the cafe, who is
a beautiful, composed, w