p.

9.

address is unchanged after the move, just M.E.F. as
usual. Oh blast & damn it, as you say, why did we
ever leave N. Ireland? As I can think of no new
or original reason, I will just leave it at that
rhetorical statement. On looking up "rhetorical" in my
Fowler (I often check on myself nowadays) he says "the
assumption is that only one answer is possible, that
if the hearer is compelled to make it mentally
himself it will impress him more than the speaker's
statement". In other words, you know it was a fool.

Do you remember the day we left Warrenpoint, the
awful train journey & the worry of out our
mistake, & then that ghastly midnight trek round
Belfast to find a room in a Hotel - how we
eventually had some tea in our room, & then in spite
of being so very tired, we slipped into one bed &
made love very quietly & gently. It was always so lovely
sweetheart when we made love in that way -
& then we very quickly and surely went to sleep
marvellously close together, happy & content that was
Max's last chance to have been conceived in Ireland.

I was talking at the beginning of this letter about
having our reward when we meet again - & I have
been thinking quite a lot lately - especially since
Max was born, that I am a believer in
compensations. Not for any superstitious reasons or
because of luck - but as a matter of act