Babs dropped her pen, and picked up one of Kit's letters for reference. She had so much to say to him and so little time to say it in, that she was afraid of leaving some of his questions unanswered. Kit's neat and precisely written epistle was a great contrast to her own blotted and smudged production; and Barbara sighed as she realised how much he managed to say in a few words, while she expended far more time and ink and energy, without expressing half as much as she wanted to tell him.
'Dear Babe,' Kit had written--'This is to tell you that we got home safely from the great Midnight Rescue Party, though of course I caught a chill and had to have that beast Hurst again. I'll tell you presently how Jill ragged him, though; and that was well worth being ill for. But first of all I have to inform you what we all think is for your good in the present crisis of your fortunes. (That means, now you are at school.) Of course we are much afflicted to hear that you are not happy, and of course we are not surprised to hear you do not like girls. (Nobody could, except Egbert, and he doesn't really, only he pretends he does because of that chap's sister last holidays. That's what has done for Egbert, and it's a great pity, but what we must expect at his age, so it's no use vociferating about it.) But to resume--we are all agreed that the best thing you can do is to stop where you are until the period of probation is over (that means till you've done being at school). You see, it is only for three months at a time, and _we_ are here in the holidays. It would be indescribable and unprecedented (which means beastly, and awful, and things like that) if you had to live with girls in the vacation too. But you are spared this, and it is your duty to be thankful for every crumb of comfort that is to be substracted from the situation. (Besides, you are a girl yourself; you can't get over that though you mayn't like the idea, and you've got to go on being a girl till you're a woman. It's something to feel that it can't last for ever, and that in the end you will be able to be a woman, like Nurse and Auntie Anna; and there's nothing the matter with them, is there?) If your temporary indisposition only cures your spelling it will be money well spent, for your spelling, my dear Babe, as father once said, is both original and varied. So cheer up, and remember that Jill is but a girl too, and that she is quite passable for one of that slack and wayward sex. (Even when she is most like a girl I find I can bear with her. For instance, when I lammented the other day that the rescue party had been a frost, she said, "Why, you couldn't have bicycled unless it had been, could you? Listen to the rain, now!") The post is going, so I must infer the description of how Jill ragged the doctor till next time. Meanwhile, cultivate the endurance for which English women have ever been renowned; that is the result of the codgitations of the council we held before the others went back to school.--Your affectionate brother, Christopher Berkeley.