Letters from a Victorian Father

Dear Dorothy,I have just received your letter from Prawle. It is now so long since I received a letter from you that I am puzzled to know the why and wherefore of it. You say you wrote me about a month ago! Not a line, dear, has reached me, but of course, I knew from Mr Bush that you were going away to Devonshire with the Buxton Girl Guides and Ivor told me last Wednesday that you had already left on the Monday.There must be at least two letters of yours floating about in space somewhere, and I suppose they will turn up in the sweet bye and bye.I met Ivor at St Pancras last Wednesday and we spent 2½ hours together. He looked in the pink of condition. We had ices and fruit cake at Lyon’s Corner House in Leicester Square and then we walked quietly along to Victoria Station, only straying a bit on the way for another ice. It was such a very hot day that Ivor couldn’t look a cup of tea in the face. It really was hot last Wednesday afternoon. I have had a postcard from him since.I am glad to hear you are having a jolly time in camp and that you know now how to swim in the approved manner. There is hardly any pleasure greater than a dip in the briny.I have not bathed much in English waters, most of my swimming was done as a young man in semi-tropical waters where it was so hot that you had to bathe very early in the morning, or some where near midnight under a full moon, and one or two fellows have had a shark between them and the shore before now; a pretty narrow squeak. Diving is the big fun, however.If you can manage to drop me another letter before you leave Prawle it will be very welcome, but please do not write to me in pencil. It gets blurred, and my eyes are not what they used to be, even with glasses.I have been staying for a day or two some little distance out, with an old gentleman, and we put in most of the time playing chess. I can go there as often as I like, but when it comes to four in the morning and still playing chess it is too much. He is simply a glutton for the game, and would play on for 24 hours if he had his way.Don’t forget a line or two. I send you a P.O. for 2/-.Love Dad.