Resting in Florence

Did not sleep at all well. At 5:40 a black cat crawled up in the window sill and cried. I tried to send her off but she wouldn’t go. Then we had a thunderstorm and heavy rain and I let the cat in.

Florence and I talked all the morning about everything and in the afternoon, Helen came in and we talked a lot more and had afternoon tea. Didn’t have any dinner as I had a little fever (100). Fortunately I had carried the fever tablets that Dr. Cogswell had given me in Amherst, so I took those and I kept awake till eleven so as to get the three doses in.

I had a nice letter from Hazel containing two pictures of John and also one from Florence.

I finished Eleanor* by Mrs. Humphrey Ward. I am beginning Diana Mallory** by the same author. I think I have read it before. Manisty in Eleanor is just like Tommy,*** I think.


Helen brought me some delicious strawberries. I do not dare to write to the children for fear of giving them the infection.

*Eleanor published in 1900
**The Testing of Diana Mallory published in 1908, a strong anti-Suffrage book. Mrs. Humphry Ward (1851-1920) was the niece of Matthew Arnold and a popular late Victorian novelist who was brought up at Oxford and whose work was marked by religious conflict.
***Tommy Sanford is her son-in-law married to her daughter, Florence.