A GARDEN DIARY 101 



FEBRUARY 10, 1900 



HP HAT resolution about the war and its news- 

 -* papers I still feel to have been the right 

 one. Unfortunately, like many excellent resolu- 

 tions, it has only one drawback, which is that 

 it is impossible to keep to it ! The situation has 

 grown too strained ; it clutches at one like a 

 demon ; it rides one all day like some waking 

 nightmare. In vain I assure myself that the 

 proper attitude for all non-combatants is one of 

 absolute patience. That it becomes us just now 

 to study patience, as we might study one of the 

 fine arts ; to learn, that is to say, either to go 

 about our own concerns, or else to wait till we 

 are told as we might be at the end of an 

 operation " All over!" "All well!" This, I 

 have no doubt, is the proper and patriotic atti- 

 tude, only how is it to be attained ? or who is 

 sufficient for such placidity? It is not so many 

 days since I opened my paper at eight o'clock 

 in the morning, and the message heliographed 

 by Sir George White to Sir Redvers Duller 



