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6. & even a real one that the war can be over in 3-4 months. You can imagine with what breathless interest I am watching things, & I expect you are too. It does seem to give us hope, at last, doesn't it, darling? You remember I named Peter on account of Peter of Yugo-Slavia who I saw last week had now arrived in London; I thought that might be a good omen too.
Youur no 39 of April 24th arrived two days ago, thank you sweetheart, another lovely letter. It is sweet & wonderful of you to tell me I am a lovely lover & a darling husband, & it gives me such an exquisite feeling of content & happiness & longing to hear you say those things. and also when you say I was a perfect father. You adored & worshipped Lisa so much, & now that she is gone it is so wonderful & satisfying & comforting to know that all our thoughts of her, & of eachother about her, are just purely loving, & unspoilt by an criticisms or misgivings about her. Thinking of it now, it seems so different & difficult, the idea of bringing up a son. Having to make a man of him, without making him rough & tough & rude. and wanting to make him an intelligent & appreciative person & not produce an effeminate type. But I'm sure he will be a very definite person & with any amount character & initiative, probably he will be himself without any very particular promptings & efforts on our side. I have absolute confidence, my darling, that you can only produce 100% perfect children
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7. & this one will be such. I do wish I could have another cable from you. He is four weeks old now - & I hope you are well on the way to being strong again, & that you are now in Noss Mayo, & that all is well. I will finish this tomorrow, darling precious one x x x x x .
Friday - 21 June. At last darling, after nearly nine monthe, we are beginning to correspond with each other. I had your 40th letter this morning, posted on May 5th & you had at last received a batch of my letters. I feel quite certain you will have had many more since then, & from now on our letters will be replying to each other & we shall really feel in touch, & know what we are thinking about each other's lives & actions & plans & thoughts & feelings. It does make such a hell of a difference, doesn't it darling? And I was pleased too, that your mother had had my letter & was glad to have it. She really is a dear soul, & I appreciate very much the affectionate way in which she looks upon me. And she has obviously been a big help to you in the latter stages of your awful pregnancy & it is a happy solution of a problem that you are going to live together in Devon. From what you are able to tell me so far, it sounds charming & delightful & I am looking forward to your first hand account of it all.
Would you believe it, I had 100 [Eobranie?] cigarettes & a longish letter from the wretched Girl this week - posted on Dec 17th. Plenty of "old boys" - and "if I can ever do anything for you - the words enough." It seems Silsden are well filled up with war work,
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8. & the fat little greaser will be well into the commission. It was very kind of him, I suppose - but I cannot really believe that he likes me, & probably he only thinks that it may be as well to keep in with a possible Director. I wish they would round him up for the Army, & I expect he is another of those people not even doing any Service at all, & just pretending that he works hard enough already.
The bit of yellow spotted voile arrived too; it is so sweet my darling & you will look as pretty as a picture - & very alluring too, & I shall not be there to be allured. Do send me more bits of stuff like this please, & tell me all about your clothes, as I love to hear & it all fits in with many of my thoughts about you. My missing of you gets worse & worse sweetheart. When I get your lovely letters, I feel marvellously happy & uplifted - & then there is always a reaction when I wonder how in the world I am going to exist any longer without you & touching you & loving you. My God, but it is painful, & really too much to endure at times. And I just cling to the hopes of an early end to all this war - & then the racket of trying to get home among the early ones.
I must post this now - at 4 sheets for 10d. All my dearest love, my darling Barbara, for ever & ever. And do not worry about me, I shall be alright. Your Harry.
