Sunday September 29th 1946

My darling Hilda,

You want to know what has happened and why you are at
Küsnacht. Last February you were taken very ill and for a time I
think you did not know any of us. It was then that Dr Carroll - who
is Irish - came to take charge. He wanted to send you to a sana-
torium in England but the food and heating conditions had got so much
worse that the Bear and I thought the only thing to do was to try to
get you to Switzerland.

The Bear and I came ahead to find a place for you. We consulted with a great friend of Professor Freud in Basel and we found See Hof through him. I saw some other places but you would not have been happy in them, for they were like hospitals. We arranged with great difficulty to have you flown out to Zürich. We could not get a whole plane so had to agree to share with a lady who was coming out with her children.

You flew first to Paris, there they had to land
to re-fuel and then on to Zürich. Dr Carroll brought you out with
one of the nurses. They returned to England two days later.

There are no enemy countries now. And no
upheavals.

All your friends have been told that you had
meningitis and that you are recovering - as indeed you are - in
Switzerland, as you had had to be in the mountains after the last
war. All your letters have reached their destination except for
two you sent to Sir Humphrey Milford who is no longer with the Oxford
Press and whose address I cannot find. The Oxford Press reply always
that letters should be sent to them, Sir Humphrey having retired.

Everybody - including Perdita - knows that you
have been under a terrible strain during the war and all are waiting
for you to be quite well again.

You have to make up a lot of weight that you
have lost, sleep much better, and listen to all that Dr Brunner tells
you - then very soon he will allow me to come and fetch you wherever
you would like to go. But until you are recovered no doctor anywhere
would let you leave the sanatorium for you might become very ill without
proper care.

Philip is looking after all your financial
affairs, everything is being paid by him for you, the flat and all its
contents are being cared for, your papers are locked up, as are your
books, till the moment comes when you need them.

I beg of you only to listen to the wise counsel
of Dr Brunner, eat well and sleep well, then we shall be re-united the
sooner. It is no question of sanity or otherwise, it is just that you,
like hundreds of other English people, have suffered a terrible strain
through the war and lost temporarily your memory. Switzerland is full
of people being helped to be well.