[Tuesday, 22nd July, 1958] Mother Hen went to reason with Mrs R. yesterday. Came home waving a piece of paper. I wish the silly old bat would mind her own business. The cryptic reference in this brief diary entry is to Chamberlain’s visit to Adolph Hitler. The PM returned waving a copy of Hitler’s assurance of “peace in our time”. World War II ensued. My mother, seeing how depressed I had become since Emma’s letter, and perhaps fearing another crisis, had called on Emma’s mother, all guns blazing. Mrs R. was at first uncompromising: “I didn’t have Emma Jane to get married. I had her to look after me in my old age.” When that cut no ice, she changed tack, and insisted that Emma - “at sixteen and still at school” - was too young to be in any sort of serious relationship. Gotcha! My mother had already accused me of cradle-snatching, after she first met Emma at fifteen. So the compromise was that Emma and I could “perhaps get back together when she was a bit older”. Some hopes now, I thought.
