Cooper, Ethel – August 1915
1.8.15
My dear Emmie,
I am just back from Mrs Jaeger’s. Rolled up in a dozen pairs of stockings are my year’s letters to you, and you can imagine that I shall wait anxiously till she has got herself and them safely over the border…
8.8.15
My dear Emmie,
…Sandor went, very low spirited, and I can’t say I am very cheerful, either… his father says that he certainly will not be taken, but I don’t allow myself to believe it till it is certain…
I have had a guarded but triumphant card from Mrs Jaeger. ‘I am safe in Berne and your affairs are entirely in order.’…
I had a little adventure two nights ago. Little Herr Zalisz wrote to say he had to stand on guard at the outer door of the barracks for 24 hours… He said it was such a help if anyone came by, to whom they could speak a little. It is not allowed of course. Well, after 10, when it was dark I took the tram out there, reached the barracks by 11 and found him at the gate. He took me into the watch-house where I was introduced to an amusing harum-scarum boy of about 20… [Herr Zalisz] took me off to show me over the barracks by the light of a scrap of candle. We were like three naughty little schoolboys out on a night spree – I knew it was risky of course, but one has got beyond caring very much what happens and I really think the other two were so tired that they didn’t think or reason at all… I was just getting a whispered description of their dinner when there were steps and voices outside… Herr Zalisz and I got behind the great-coats on the wall and stood there stiff and holding our breaths. We heard a little talking, then the candle vanished and the door was locked and they went away. The night guard came back, said he had made an excuse about having heard a noise, let us out and I bolted for all I was worth…
15.8.15
My dear Emmie,
I am just marking time and waiting for the decision tomorrow about Sandor – he will telegraph if it is allowed, but it is so difficult to get a private telegram about military matters through…
Another cheery card yesterday from Mrs Jaeger, from which I gather that my second dozen letters have been posted to you – she says, ‘I have carried out your second commission – all in order’. I chortle when I think how we have circumvented the censor…
22.8.15
My dear Emmie,
A long letter from Sandor this morning, but still nothing definite – I fancy he will be given a kind of trial-week, to see if he can stand the training…
I am restless…Zeppelins are throwing bombs over London, and our men are falling in the Dardanelles like flies…
29.8.15
My dear Emmie,
My little pile of letters is beginning to grow again – here is the fifth, and it will be a long time before I find anyone as courageous as Mrs Jaeger to smuggle them away again…
Still nothing definite from Sandor – he is in uniform, spends five hours each day hanging about the barracks and waiting for a decision…
I made plum jam last week and tomorrow I make tomato sauce – but not much – everything is so expensive – not only the fruit, but all the sugar and the little ingredients.
