9 - ‘I Dont Think I was Ever Brave’: The Romance of His Life (1921) and the Longing for Rest

Summary

Mary was still keeping abreast of the peace negotiations, expressing concerns about the American President Wilson, who would in fact disagree with both Britain and France over the terms of the settlement. She would remain convinced that Kitchener had been right in warning against plans for a German invasion of England itself, which helps to explain something very like hatred in her response to Germany and its allies. But these last months of the year were not given over entirely to reflection. A week after the armistice, Victoria was in Ufford with Essex, working on her new initiative to help disabled soldiers by teaching them to paint on old furniture. The new work and the armistice combined to restore Victoria's health, and she now began to busy herself once again in the garden of the cottage. Even before the coming of peace it had become clear that, despite Percy Lubbock's tenacity, the hospital would have to do without her as she began her new furniture project. In January 1919 Mary reported to Rhoda that she was writing because Victoria was too busy with her work. The dining room and morning room had been turned into workshops, and a subtle aroma of stove oil was blending with paint and cheap tobacco all over the house. Two disabled soldiers were comfortably installed and making great progress – with the war safely over, Mary risks a joke about one of them being so stout that she would have thought the bullet to his stomach would have got lost as in a maze. But Victoria worked with them all day, showing them how to paint trays with regimental badges, stools, tables, chests and mirrors. The house was crammed with wet furniture and a resigned Mary relays the story of a van stopping at the door and solemnly expectorating no fewer than thirty tables – they had been expecting six.