16

To keep everything in the character of Mardell La Tour, Grace wrote a letter to Mardell’s imaginary mother in Shaftesbury. She was painstaking. She wrote a draft then made a second corrected copy for mailing. She made up the address. The address wasn’t important so long as it went to Shaftesbury, England. The letter would go to the dead letter office anyway.

Dear Mum,

I’ve been following the weather in England every day in the New York Times and it looks like you’ll never get out of your wellies. Not that New York is any tropical paradise. I got a job selling fourteen colors of shoe polish at Woolworth’s. Oh, yes, they have Woolworth’s here, as well. The pay isn’t tremendous. I still have to cut out soles made out of newspaper for the insides of my shoes to keep my feet dry. I moved to a nice new flat. I can hardly believe that Brenda and Joe were due to come back to work on Saturday but never arrived. The fact that they turned up on Monday, collected six pounds from the post office, and spent all of it on a piglet leaves me quite surprised. Drink is in the offing. But who will go bail for Joe this time? I now suspect that the yarn about the baby dying was all a louse. Sarah writes that Hugo woke up early one morning and wrote all over the walls with Sally’s lipstick and emptied her Floris into her boots, yet he thinks he can go back there on another holiday. Emma Cole is not well and Arthur Shears has gone to Youngstown, Ohio, which is in America. I share your bewilderment over why Shirley Parker does nothing but wash blankets. I dreamed the other night that I did not get to play Father Christmas and it depressed me, although I don’t know why. I carry with me wherever I go the fond memory of your sweet voice singing “The Death of Queen Adelaide.”

Old England may weep, her bright hopes are fled,

The friend of the poor is no more,

For Adelaide now is among the poor dead,

And her loss we shall sadly deplore.

For though noble her birth, and high was her station,

Their wants she relieved without ostentation,

But now she is gone, God bless her!

God bless her! God bless her!

But now she is gone, God bless her.

In your next letter tell me if you can use more of the wizard denture stickum which is on sale here. Many American celebrities wear it and boast about it on the telly.

With love and kisses,

Your daughter,

Margaret

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