A delightfully warm day. Still very idle. Saw half a dozen town cases. In the afternoon gave Mrs Wilson, Beechbank, gas and opened a small abscess in her neck1. Got letter from Jean [Muir, daughter] + wrote her. Banked some money for M + G [Muir and Graham co-partnership]. Got hair cut. Bella [Paulin, housekeeper] had a touch of her old asthma today + so I made my own bed + empty [sic] my slops! Made Mrs McIntosh a loan of “Sonia”2. Read “Joan + Peter” by H G Wells3. It belongs to Frank Muir4.
1 The Wilsons were at Beechbank Cottages around this date [Valuation Rolls]
2 ‘Sonia, Between Two Worlds, 1917, by Stephen McKenna (1888-1967), English novelist; in ‘Sonia by Stephen McKenna (1917)’, 27 May 2015, Michael Walmer states “… this became by far McKenna’s widest success, including the astonishing feat of being the 10th bestselling novel in the USA in 1918, and fifteen printings in its first year in the UK.” http://michaelwalmer.blogspot.com/2015/05/sonia-by-stephen-mckenna-1917.html
3 ‘Joan and Peter’ subtitled ‘The Story of an Education’, 1918
4 This may be the book left at Dr Muir’s on 5th September by Mrs Baird
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/22, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1919]