It was Christine’s idea to send someone in her place to Vent Royal pretending to be her and she found a school friend who was willing to help us.
‘We are sending her a telegram to join us in Rome after we calculate you will have received this letter and Christine left her enough money for the journey. But if by any chance things go wrong and she is troubled over what she has done, it would be kind of you, Papa, if you would do what you could to help her.
Mina’s father is dead and so is her mother and Christine tells me that she has no money and her home where she lived in Lincolnshire has been closed by her uncle, Colonel Osbert Shaldon, whom I dare say you know as he was in the Grenadiers.
‘Anyway, we are extremely grateful to Mina Shaldon for helping us and when she joins us we will d
