December 17 + 

Spent the last two days, both of us, in a state of unrelieved gloom. The clouds never lifted for a moment⁠—it’s awful. I scarcely have spoken a word.⁠ ⁠… And eugenically, what kind of an infant would even a Mark Tapley expect of a father with a medical history like mine, and a mother with a nervous system like hers?⁠ ⁠… Could anything be more unfortunate? And the War? What may not have happened by this time next year? My health is grotesque. + 