A Story of War

I nip over to England to see the London Traffic Office and get a few tips, on Thursday 28th. Louise is in Leicester and rings me up about 4pm, so I hop on a train and reach Ratcliffe Hall, home of Sir Lindsay Everard, where all her A.T.A. pool live, at about 8.30pm. I have a damn nice bed and we drink Scotch and talk until about 1am. Next morning she flies me down to White Waltham in the belly of a Barracuda, and I then hitch hike to London, arriving for Baffy’s luncheon at Chandos at 1.20pm. I go round to Wendy’s for a bed, and get the whole flat as she is away to stay with J.J. for the weekend in Elstree. Louise is getting herself out of A.T.A. and I meet her at the American Red Cross in Chandos Street, and suggest that she comes and stays in the flat with me, which she does. We have dinner at the Brevet Club and go back and drink some of Wendy’s Madeira. She tells me she is in love with this American despite his family, so that’s that. Next day I do a few things and she discovers that she cannot go back to him and America yet, as the US Embassy will not give her a visa as they are getting out new rules and she is a Dutch citizen. She is pretty damned depressed and so am I, and after a few drinks and dinner at the Brevet with some friend of hers, we return home (meet Eric Milne and some of the boys in the Brevet Club). I get an awful fit of tears, which I never had before God damnit, and am talked to quite calmly by Louise, who points out that it will not work under the circumstances – agreed.

Yesterday I fly back from Hendon on the Dutch Dakota and now feel a little better, though she still hurts a bit. God only knows what she must be feeling over this Yank – especially as she cannot now get over to see him! I call on her uncle in Wassenaar last night and leave some stuff – later going back for a rum and tea session, but her presence lurks there and I do not like it. I never told Monica that I was in town! That trip in the Barracuda – sitting on piles of kit in Louise’s dressing gown, in a slight loving haze.