Women's Christian College,
Madras, S.W.,
27th February 1930.Dear Miss Turner,
What a kind lady you are! When your letter of January 18th came before I had written to tell you how much I had appreciated your letter of December 24th I did feel ashamed. I had hoped to write you that everything was settled, but the Consul, whom I thought at first was going to be most kind and helpful, has been fussy and finicky. I hope that the money is on its way to Helen, but I am not sure about it. I wrote to him, asking whether he or I should change the money which Miss Smith left in foreign currencies into Indian money in order to pay his expenses connected with shipping the trunk and other baggage, and mine for cables. When I did not hear for two weeks I finally called him up on the telephone. He told me that he had been ill and that was why my letter had not been answered. Then he added, "In cases where I feel any doubt I have the power to ask that copies of the letters of authorization to the person appointed as executrix be sent to me." So I replied rather sharply that I had had letters confirming the cable which told us that Helen was executrix. That cable is in his office! He became less haughty in his tone and I do hope that he has not worried Helen. He asked me to send all the money to him and I have done so.How soon he will settle the accounts and sent [sic] the balance, together with the letter of credit and express checks to Helen I do not know.
Just a few letters have come since the last I sent you. I knew that they could not be from intimate friends and so I simply destroyed them.
Gertrude Chandler is here in Madras and will take back to Madura the little packet of jewelry and the watch, and will take them with her when she sails in April. They had to be brought to Madras because the Consul asked to see them. He saw them before Christmas and they have stayed in our safe waiting for Gertrude Chandler to come.
How very sad that Mr. Larrabee is having a recurrence of the trouble which he had last year. I am glad that Miss Smith had not heard that news. How very, very sad for Mrs. Larrabee and Helen to have so much anxiety at this time particularly.
Sometimes I wonder if I was really very wrong not to realize that a trip through India would be too great a strain for Miss Smith. There are times when I blame myself for encouraging her to come. And yet, - other people who seem no younger and no more vigorous do it all right. Just yesterday Prof. Irving Wood of Smith College came to see us with his wife and daughter. Mrs. Wood looked frail to me, but their trip was really a hurried one with very little leisure for resting.
It is your own grief which has made you realize with such sympathetic understanding our sadness here. I did not realize until she had gone how very, very much I had anticipated her coming, and how I had been living in the future, - in making plans for her. One day last year a letter from here made me feel that some of my colleagues were seeing somethings in a very different light from my own. Then, I did wish very much for a second year of study. I got quite rebellious for a bit and almost imagined myself cabling that I should not return for another year. At that point I recollected Miss Smith's visit and said to myself, "That settles it. I must be in India when she comes."
Eleanor's research goes on steadily. She has given her University lectures, and to-day she and I were visited by a University Commission because we have asked that the College be affiliated in Physiology and Physics as subsidiary subjects in the B.A. course.
Yours affectionately,
Edith M. Coon