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Letter No. 70. Sunday 7 Sep. Major J H Massey, 6th Palestinian Coy, The Buffs, M.E.F.

My own sweet Barbara,

It is now Monday - I did not progress very far yesterday as sleep overtook me in the afternoon, & I had to work most of the evening. I had run into a man who was on the Duchess of York, & we had rather a large & long lunch session, for which he insisted on paying. Your No 52 came today - so,recently, I have had nos 44, 46, 47, 60, & 52. Nos 45, 48, 49, & 51 being still missing - I cannot think why this should be.

Thank you darling for your sympathy about my rash, I sent you an A.G. the other day to say it was better, thanks to a specialist I was sent to. And if it ever comes back, I have the right stuff to stop it at once. Sweetheart, the question of purity - I hope you did not misunderstand me, or that I did not sow a seed of doubt in your mind. I'm sure I did not, I cannot have done - but this long range correspondence is so difficult, & it must be quite easy really to say something in not quite the right sense, & then have it taken up the wrong way, & especially so now we both read each others letters so thoroughly & carefully in order to extract the full meaning, & the feeling & the mood of the other when writing them. If you were ever to give me permission to be unfaithful, I should feel that the world had come to an end, & that you did not care what I did or what happened to me. Love & passion, & just sex all by itself, have no meaning to me at all apart

Letter No. 70. Sunday 7 Sep. Major J H Massey, 6th Palestinian Coy, The Buffs, M.E.F.

My own sweet Barbara,

It is now Monday - I did not progress very far yesterday as sleep overtook me in the afternoon, & I had to work most of the evening. I had run into a man who was on the Duchess of York, & we had rather a large & long lunch session, for which he insisted on paying. Your No 52 came today - so,recently, I have had nos 44, 46, 47, 60, & 52. Nos 45, 48, 49, & 51 being still missing - I cannot think why this should be.

Thank you darling for your sympathy about my rash, I sent you an A.G. the other day to say it was better, thanks to a specialist I was sent to. And if it ever comes back, I have the right stuff to stop it at once. Sweetheart, the question of purity - I hope you did not misunderstand me, or that I did not sow a seed of doubt in your mind. I'm sure I did not, I cannot have done - but this long range correspondence is so difficult, & it must be quite easy really to say something in not quite the right sense, & then have it taken up the wrong way, & especially so now we both read each others letters so thoroughly & carefully in order to extract the full meaning, & the feeling & the mood of the other when writing them. If you were ever to give me permission to be unfaithful, I should feel that the world had come to an end, & that you did not care what I did or what happened to me. Love & passion, & just sex all by itself, have no meaning to me at all apart