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[S. Gillon]

Bankhead
Balerno
Midlothian

Telephone
Balerno 14

17. 2. 1936.

My dear John,

Your welcome letter found me
in bed at Brooks's with gout in the instep of my
right foot, helpless, useless for my purpose in London
- an Appeal -, and as miserable as a man can be
who has lost one case without being able to get a
proper hearing (in Edin), & can't even get to hear another.
If I hadn't had Heiden's "Hitler" (fresh from
Zurich & "unedited"), to take my mind off the pain, the plight
would have been worse. Then just as it was
easing off, your letter arrived & the loneliness
vanished! I would have written long ago
but I felt that at the time of spate of letters
an extra one is not an unmixed blessing
& that I would wait for a personal occasion.
And now you have put me to shame by
writing so kindly of my effort in the Stair
Society's first publicaiton. It took more
labour than appears & had to undergo a good deal
of compression. It was none the easier, because