Blaess writes that she may soon be able to get hold of a visa, and that if she is successful she will return to England and send them a telegram from London. She is uncertain as to when she will arrive to see her parents but writes that if she is not there by the 25th, the likelihood is she will not be coming at all. She has made arrangements to spend Christmas in France with her aunt as a back up in case she cannot make it back to England. Blaess has been busy shopping but is shocked by the luxurious expenditures of her new friend Norah, who seems significantly less concerned with savings. The only thing Blaess is concerned with is the lack of coffee: she feels like apart from that and the newspapers, she can't tell there is a war going on. She also details her recovery from a brief illness and meeting a Mr Tritsch, whom she had heard a lot about before. He wasn't as ugly as he had been described to her, so she almost found him nice looking, very tall and talkative. The captain is now a commander - he and Madeleine still get on very well together.