Three months later.
The Manor, Wyck-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire.
_August 30th._ Darling Anne,--Colin has been discharged at last as incurable.
He is with me here. I'm so glad to have him, the darling. But
oh, his nerves are in an awful state--all to bits. He's an utter
wreck, my beautiful Colin; it would make your heart bleed to see
him. He can't sleep at night; he keeps on hearing shells; and if
he does sleep he dreams about them and wakes up screaming. It's
awful to hear a man scream. Anne, Queenie must come home and
look after him. My nerves are going. I can't sleep any more than
Colin. I lie awake waiting for the scream. I can't take the
responsibility of him alone, I can't really. After all, she's
his wife, and she made him go out and fight, though she knew
what Eliot said it would do to him. It's too cruel that it
should have happened to Col-Col of all people. _Make_ that woman
come.
Your loving Adeline Fielding.
Nieuport. _September 5th, 1915._ Darling Auntie,--I'm so sorry about dear Col-Col. And I quite
agree that Queenie ought to go back and look after him. But she
won't. She says her work here is much more important and that
she can't give up hundreds of wounded soldiers for just one man.
Of course she is doing splendidly, and Cutler says he can't
spare her and she'd be simply thrown away on one case. They
think Colin's people ought to look after him. It doesn't seem to
matter to either of them that he's her husband. They've got into
the way of looking at everybody as a case. They say it's not
even as if Colin could be got better so as to be sent out to
fight again. It would be sheer waste of Queenie.
But Cutler has given me leave to go over and see him. I shall
get to Wyck as soon as this letter.
Dear Col-Col, I wish I could do something for him. I feel as if
we could never, never do too much after all he's been through.
Fancy Eliot knowing exactly what would happen.
Your loving Anne.
Nieuport. _September 7th._ Dear Anne,--Now that you _have_ gone I think I ought to tell you
that it would be just as well if you didn't come back. I've got
a man to take your place; Queenie picked him up at Dunkirk the
day you sailed, and he's doing very well.
The fact is we're getting on much better since you left. There's
perfect peace now. You and Queenie didn't hit it off, you know,
and for a job like ours it's absolutely essential that everybody
should pull together like one. It doesn't do to have two in a
Corps always at loggerheads.