Stuk 24 - Letter from Elizabeth des Amorie van der Hoeven to R. C. Trevelyan

19 Prinsegracht, the Hague; addressed to Bob at Pension Palumbo, Ravello, presso Amalfi, Italia. - Has had a very quiet and solitary New Year's Eve, which is usually the time for 'family reunions and games'; knows the idea of the old year ending is artificial, but she cannot help feeling it. Last year she was at Taormina, after spending 'a very cold and unpoetical Christmas' at Messina; she and Grandmont had bad colds; had no idea what the year would bring; quotes Browning on love as 'a passionate drawing closer'. has had a busy day; the doctor has been and told her aunt to stay in bed for a few more days so she has household and nursing responsibilities, though Marie [Johanna Maria Hubrecht] and her two sons have left to stay with her mother at Scheveningen. Willy van Riemsdijk has decided to go to Transvaal after all [see 9/32], a 'silly & rash decision'. If her aunt is well, may go to Amsterdam on Wednesday to play for [Bram] Eldering; worries about how little time she has. Expects Mrs Cacciola [Florence Trevelyan] has written to Bob as well; asks if she writes 'in the same enthusiastic strain to her dear Calverley' as she did to Bessie and Bramine [Hubrecht] about him; the letter she sent to Bramine was also complimentary about Bessie.

Returns to the letter on the following morning; Ambro [Hubrecht] arrived unexpectedly the night before; his visit cheered her aunt, and he told them that Willy van Riemsdijk was not now going to South Africa. Has several pictures of the landslide in Amalfi in the paper; other houses as well as part of the Capuccini Hotel seemed to have been buried. Had a letter from Bob's mother this morning asking her to send her photos to Bob's aunt [Anna Maria] Philips and her friend [Miss Wicksteed]. On the next day, scolds Bob because she still has not received a letter from him. Her aunt is much the same.