I presume you explained everything to the Colonial Office after you got back to London and that you are now free to take up a civil career?
The people out there never sent me any further information; but the other day one of my letters to you (written after I had received the sad news) returned to me, with the information that the hospital you were in had been captured by the Boers and that you could not be traced.

I enclose it.

You can now finish up the story yourself and let the authorities know how you got away and returned home.
The other day that impudent baggage Jenny Gorlais came and asked to see me ...

she said her husband was out of work and refused to give her enough money to provide for all her children, that he had advised her to apply to _you_ for the maintenance of _your_ son! Relying on what you had told me I sent for Bridget and we both told her we had made every enquiry and now refused absolutely to believe in her stories of five years ago--that we were sure you were _not_ the father of her eldest child.

Bridget, for example, believed the postman was its father.