Thursday 2nd March 1939

Apart from business mail, my morning correspondence consisted of a letter from Lois and two separate (one final!) demands for income tax - £1-9-2. Hiring expenses for this week come to about £2-0-0. All that will have to come out of my bank balance – about £17. On the 16th of the month the usual £4-5-10 hire-purchase sum is due. On the 24th, road tax - £2-3-0.

At times like this I think that chances of marriage are so distant that it was quite futile to become engaged at all. I became engaged realising only the romantic side of the show and eager to “make certain” of someone I loved. Anxious to find someone definite, not a straw “borne on the dark flood”. Now I appreciate, bitterly, that there is a cold £-s-d aspect to all this.