13 December 1915 – 19 December 1915

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.