I don't like to lose you, and I know you've done splendidly. But
I've got to choose between Queenie and you, and I must keep her,
if it's only because she's worked with me all the time. So now
that you've made the break I take the opportunity of asking you
to resign. Personally I'm sorry, but the good of the Corps must
come before everything.
Sincerely yours, Robert Cutler.
The Manor, Wyck-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire.
_September 11th, 1915._ Dear Dicky,--This is only to say good-bye, as I shan't see you
again. Cutler's fired me out of the Corps. He _says_ it's
because Queenie and I don't hit it off. I shouldn't have thought
that was my fault, but he seems to think it is. He says there's
been perfect peace since I left.
Well, we've had some tremendous times together, and I wish we
could have gone on.
Good-bye and Good Luck, Yours ever, Anne Severn.
P. S.--Poor Colin Fielding's in an awful state. But he's been a
bit better since I came. Even if Cutler'd let me come back I
couldn't leave him. This is my job. The queer thing is he's
afraid of Queenie, so it's just as well she didn't come home.
Nieuport.
_September 15th, 1915._ Dear Old Thing,--We're all furious here at the way you've been
treated. I've resigned as a protest, and I'm going into the R.
A. M. So has Miss Mullins--: resigned I mean--so Queenie's the
only woman left in the Corps. That'll suit her down to the
ground.
I gave myself the treat of telling Cutler what I jolly well
think of him. But of course you know she made him hoof you out.
She's been trying for it ever since you joined. It's all rot his
saying you didn't hit it off with her, when everybody knows you
were a perfect angel to her. Why, you backed her every time when
we were all going for her. It's quite true that the peace of God
has settled on the Corps since you left it; but that's only
because Queenie doesn't rage round any more.
You'll observe that she never went for Miss Mullins. That's
because Miss Mullins kept well out of the line of fire. And if
you hadn't jolly well distinguished yourself there she'd have
let you alone, too. The real trouble began that day you were at
Dixmude. It wasn't a bit because she was afraid you'd be killed.
Queenie doesn't want you about when the War medals are handed
round. Everybody sees that but old Cutler. He's too much gone on
her to see anything. She can twist him round and round and tie
him up in knots.
But Cutler isn't in it now. Queenie's turned him down for that
young Noel Fenwick who's got your job. Cutler's nose was a
sight, I can tell you.