A GODSEND

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 226, 22 April 1933, Page 6

A GODSEND

A Day in Bed A day in bed is a temperamental thing, the possibility of which is felt the moment one enters a house (writes a correspondent in the "Manchester Guardian.") Often a day in bed is a godsend, or would be a godsend if it really dropped from Heaven. A long spell of sustained work makes a day in bed delectable, a time for swimming in the void with a pleasant sense of weightlessness, of yielding up all responsibilities, of sleeping as long as one wants to, or reading where and how one feels, and of meals that are a surprise and which come, as it were, of themselves and completely obliterate any cense of effort. A slight indispositionafter it is over—should always indicate a day in bed, so pleasant is the sense of relaxation.

The chief difficulty of this form of enjoyment is to choose the house in which it may happen. Perhaps complete freedom of movement is only found when one lives alone, but staying in bed without an audience and, still more, without the necessary ministering angel is not much pleasure. To stay in somebody else's house and do it is the ideal, provided that there be no hitches. There are houses where the beds are too smooth, the service too perfect, the gas-fire too gassy, the eiderdowns too settled in for ever, even to suggest staying in bed, except for the regulation hours which are a concession to human weakness. There are others, on the other hand, which simply force one to stay in bed, which seem as though they like the sight of trays and making up coal fires, and know just when a hotwater bottle is needed and just when company. But they are not many, and thf.y are to be treasured above rubies. They are often not the best-regulated houses, and the servants' evenings out are not obtruded, as in the best families. But they are cases in a cold world, in which to bask is a privilege of the highest order.