Volume 2: Letters written on active service, M-W, 1914-1919 - Page 360
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[Page 360]
[Page 352 has 11 sketches or caricatures, around which the text has been written. The page of sketches is titled "Ragtime Sketches at Durban. Dec. 1916" and are mainly of heads, with some full-body sketches. Two are individually labelled: "Come on my penny" and "Popcorn". See image for details.]
Clive! Clive O'Hara. "Wonders never cease". We just look across our drinks at one another. "Do you know the minute I saw you and the sketch book I knew you were Vasco. We discuss our last Champagne blow-out in Los Angeles, and of all places to meet him in Cape Town. Oh Gwen Precious One, of all glorious seaside places. We must really put in a season here. Would you believe our transport has stayed two weeks. Two weeks of route marches, plenty of leave, seegars (just wonderful ones made from Natal tobacco that make me feel you trotting and laughing alongside me), motor cars, hansome cabs, evening dress dinners, carmen concerts and surf planing. There's been such a rush of fun and excitement that at nights it is just lovely to get quietly into bed beneath the blankets and stars and well you must feel it too. That distance makes not one scrap of difference. You know I have great little tete a tetes with you. Don't say you don't or I'll image I've been speaking to someone else. I often whistle our old Victoria B.C. "waiting outside your window" tune and hear the echo on your mandolin.
There's a town about six miles from here. They call it "Vasco" where the famous South African mineral water comes from. Seeing that all pubs are closed