Jan 9. Jerusalem [(El Quds esh Sherif, Yerushalayim)]. Dearest Mother. I am waiting most anxiously for your telegram. Poor dear Aunt Ada! I am so terribly sorry for them all. I only hope that in the absence of news before this she must be clinging on to life with that wonderful endurance of hers and that she may still recover. It is too sad about your Berlin plans. C'était fatal! I can't understand at all why on the 30th you had not got letters from me. I have written regularly by every mail since I arrived and by this time you must have heard that I am extremely flourishing and so wildly interested in Arabic that I think of nothing else. You can understand the joy of at last being able to learn this language that I have been vainly struggling with for so long. If I stay on here I really think I shall begin to make some progress and for that reason I shall be quite content if Papa does not come. I have not written to thank him for all his dear letters because I am not yet certain of his plans and I thought it was no good sending him letters when I might be going to meet him before they arrived. I will telegraph to you from time to time as the post seems to be such a beast. I have got letters from you today up to the 31st, it's very singular. I am working quite hard, all the morning and again after tea and after dinner - 5 or 6 hours a day which is about all I can manage. My little girl is a great success. I took her out for a long walk on Saturday. We went down to a charming Greek monastery, the Convent of the Cross where we found all the monks busy singing prayers - it was their Xmas Day. Then we took a bee line across country and came out on the Jaffa [Tel Aviv-Yafo (Joppa)] road. On the way we found lots of exquisite pale blue irises growing among the rocks. The weather is heavenly, bright and hot every day. The people are longing for rain, but I don't share their views myself. On Sunday I went for a long walk by myself in the afternoon, the Rosens having calls to pay. I took my camera and had a delightful time, first exploring the town and then all round by the Mt of Olives and home by the Valley of Hinnon where I gathered a great bunch of dark blue starch hyacinths and pink cyclamen in the field of Acceddama. Yesterday Charlotte Dr R. and I went for a ride, exploring the hills to the west of the town. My horse is very brisk and none the worse for his hard Jericho days which does him great credit. He is a success all round - like everything else here! I am relieved to hear that M [Maurice]'s chances of being sent to Africa are small. I wd much rather he were at Bradford, bless him! though I dare say he does not agree with me. Tell him I have letters and Xmas cards from Mr Walford, Mr Plummer and Mr Whitehead and they send him messages. Comes my master... And has gone. I do hope you are all right. It's a great bore that you always have colds at Xmas - I wish you wd go away to some decent climate. Elsa must have had a very nice time while she was ill if you told her all the delightful tales you related to me! I look back to my attack of measles with the greatest pleasure. You are the best of nurses. It takes someone amusing to be a good nurse. I am much interested about the Ibsen play. For my part I read nothing but the Old Testament in my odd moments - which are few. It's awfully interesting to come upon it quite fresh when one is grown up - that happens to few, I should think. I really didn't know it at all. It strikes me as being extraordinarily savage - it's a most curious combination of circumstances that we, of all people, should treat it as a holy book. It's so far removed from us. At the same time it's full of the most beautiful things.

Jan 10. [10 January 1900] I finally telegraphed to you in the morning yesterday so that you might know I am all right. Your telegram came in the afternoon, and on the whole gave better news of Aunt A than I expected. I thought Papa wd not come. I went to a Xmas tree at the Russians' in the afternoon and we all dined with Dr Einsler - very funny and German. The Herr Pastor Böttcher [see also Bötcher] and a Herr Heinze completed the party. The Einslers live in a little house in the town, a most amusing place with a garden and a courtyard on the first storey. Goodbye. I am going to write to Papa. Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude