[Stationary preprinted with name and address of hotel:] Hôtel de
Castiglione, Paris
12, Rue de Catiglione
June 14 [1918]
Dear Family,
I am a lady again for the first
time in nearly 3 months & I have
almost forgotten how to behave properly
& I know that I no longer am a
fitting descendant of William the
Conqueror. I came here two days ago
because we have had a change &
as nothing much was doing for us
for the moment I was able to get
a few days to buy some summer
Beatrice Ecclesine & I are here together,
very swell in a suite with a bath;
I am spending a great deal of
money but I have made my
mind up not to care because
I have been out of town for a
long time & don't know when I
will be back again. The Effect of
the war is certainly not that
of raising your standards & if you
could see me drinking cocktails
at tea time Pa would certainly
no longer accuse me of being a teetotaler. There is one thing
that I have learnt lately & which
the Daly unit already knows, & that
is -- work hard when you have to, but
Enjoy yourself just as hard when you
get a chance. No one works harder
than Mrs. Daly or Beatrice, night & day
they are often on the job, but when
they get the chance to relax they
forget the Existence of the war &
throw care to the winds: otherwise
in the kind of life we lead you
could not rise above the tiring
ceaselessness of the work. I am giving you this long dissitation
to show that there is no need of
your worrying about my health from
overwork. I never felt better in my
life & several people on seeing me
in Paris remarked on how well
I looked.
I suppose I will be lucky if I
Ever have again such an interesting
Experience as we have been
having lately. At the time it was
overwhelming & heartbreaking & it
still makes me ache when I think
of the same stream of wounded
men & refugees, because we only
for four years & which I
suppose will continue until
the End of the war. We held an
extremely important position & it
was a pleasure to see how Everyone
worked -- you can not complain
when you see wounded men who
have been lying hours with no
attention & who never utter a
sound of discouragement or
complaint. I tell you that the
least we can do now is to go
& work wherever we are needed. I
am not particularly keen about bombs & shells but if I could
help out I really would not
care if I had to be in danger.
This sounds like foolish talk especially
as we are in a perfectly safe
place & likely to stay there, but it
makes your blood boil to see so
many sufferers of the war &
you have to forget yourself when
you think of them. I helped
several families who had already
left their homes three times before --
pretty discouraging for the poor
old people.
Unintentionally I have led up to
the subject of my coming home &
frankly I don't think I could
bear to leave here unless there is
something more Essential for me to
do there -- there is a great lack of
strong healthy independent girls
here -- to be sure there are crowds of
women working in France but I
should say that a large part of
them are not as useful or
intelligent & capable as they ought
to be.
Beatrice & I went to dine at Prunier's
with a funny old American doctor whois with our unit last night. It
reminded me of four years ago when
I was here with Pa & Alice. We all
boiled live lobster & then went on to
a poor musical show. The major
made me laugh because his French
is very feeble & he kept asking whether
it was proper for him to be
amused & he wanted the jokes
explained which is always impossible.
Beatrice is great fun; she dresses herself
up so that she looks like the
most inefficient doll who Ever
walked 5th Ave. she has very large blue Eyes & when not
working she takes on
a helpless & ultra-
feminine attitude. When I first
saw her in Paris I thought what
a hopeless girl to be a nurse. But
now that I know her better I
love seeing her in her Parisian
clothes.
Enough for now because I have
many Errands still to do. One
word of advice, never worry about me
because I am always all right.