The Henson Journals

[105]

Tuesday, July 3rd, 1923.

I left Auckland at 8 a.m., and caught the early express at Darlington. On arriving in London, I went to the Athenaeum, e deposited my bags. Then I went to the hairdresser, & had my haircut. Returning to the club, I found Pearce, the Master of C.C.C. and (idiotically) accepted his renewed invitation to give the Rede Lecture next year. Bayley was there also. I wrote my name in the Club–book as proposing Malcolm Dillon for election. Then I made my way to St Paul's Deanery.

Ralph and I dined with the Merces' Company, it being the "Apposition Dinner" of St Paul School. I proposed the toast of the School in a dull speech, vastly too heavy for the occasion. There was much singing, so that we did not get away before 10.45 p.m. though we started dinner at 7 p.m.

Ella made an expedition to Birchington to learn the state of the poor ladies there, and brought back a very ill report. Evidently the strain of prolonged anxiety, and the shocks first of a severe operation and then of the radium treatment have been too much for Marion's resources of physical strength, and she is now in a woeful state. The circumstances that Birchington is a holiday resort, and that the stream of tourists is now beginning to pour into the place, make it extremely difficult to find lodgings. Yet one of us ought to be on the spot.

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