The 'Correspondence' Affair #12 - November 7, 1912 (Alexander to Millicent)

[avirra.livejournal.com]

From : London, England

November 7, 1912

Dearest Millicent,

Travel to and from the Persian Gulf region was not without its share of challenges, but we have made it back to England unscathed beyond bouts of the troubles one has to expect when dealing with water in a foreign climate. The less that said on that particular topic, the better.

The man meeting us to act as a translator was an interesting chap named Thomas Lawrence. Born in Wales, believe it or not, but well versed in Arabic. Younger fellow that I would have assumed – just turned twenty-four. His French is very good as well. Not a lot that can be said about what happened while we were there. Just business and rather dull at that.

The times between meetings were fascinating however. Mister Lawrence and I were the two closest in age and he was kind enough to spend the better part of a day showing me many of the sights of the area once he saw my interest. I am afraid that most of those along for the trip tended not to care to have more than minimal dealings with the local peoples and even looked down on Mister Lawrence for his affinity with them. Perhaps His Lordship has a point when he says that our generation and his will fail to see eye to eye on many things due to the changes in the world. Still, it doesn't seem a very far-seeing policy to alienate the very peoples one would need to associate with to get anything done in this region of the world.

Terribly sorry to hear about the unfortunate incident with your ankle, but I am glad to read that you are on the mend. Your doctor is quite right. I had a sprain once myself and I made the error of re-starting normal activity again too soon. As a result, I only ended up extending the healing time by another two weeks. I trust you will be wiser in the matter than I was.

Regarding your archery lessons being replaced by equestrianism, I would have to venture that you are far more likely to find yourself in need of riding ability than archery skills. On a related note, having recently been forced to do a bit of travel by camel, I have to say that if your Miss Jesse had to deal with a camel for any amount of time, she would be far more pleasantly inclined toward horses.

I will be traveling to Scotland on the twentieth of the month. His Lordship has some business matters that he requested I tend to for him and I plan to mix business with a bit of pleasure and take the opportunity to visit some of my mother's family. I will likely be there until after the New Year (or Hogmanay as it is referred to there).

I have included the address where I will be most of the time, so direct any letters there as I doubt one would have time to reach me here before I depart.

Regarding your classmates, I am not sure how much assistance I will be able to give regarding Ermengarde, but as it isn't an immediate worry, we shall just have to see when the time arrives. On another note, I am glad that the odds are currently against my running into Lavinia socially. I am afraid I would also have a great deal of trouble hiding my amusement even though I am sure that the young lady's nose cannot be anywhere close to the size your letters have it imagined in my mind to be.

Yours most fondly,

Alexander

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Comments

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Loved the set up for his friendship with Lawrence as well as the reference to Hogmany....getting to Scotland for New Year's is on my bucket list that will, alas, never be fulfilled unless I win a very big lottery!

[jkkitty.livejournal.com]

Humor is great. Waverly on a camel, now that I would love to see.