Description | Rix informs his cousin that it was Edith Rix who gave notice to terminate her contract, and that he in fact would be happy to give a testimonial to that effect. He received a note on 11 July from Edith to state that she believed she should seek work somewhere where the air was better than in London. Rix resisted his urge to dissuade her as her as she had been suffering from poor health, he had noticed some friction between the chief and her, and because he thought she might be doing better work than cataloguing.
He discussed the matter with Edith Rix the same evening, and advised that she stay for a while so that she might secure other work before leaving, and he wrote the next morning to fix 31 August as the end of her engagement, though she was informed that she might leave without the usual notice in the event of finding alternative work.
What F Rix has now explained of the material Edith had to read would apparently give the main reason for her decision, though he was unaware of this at the time. He notes that Miss Mason called and told him how greatly it affected Edith, and so he spoke to Miss Chambers and asked her to arrange work in her department so as to allow Edith to avoid medical and physiological work as much as possible; and while she did do this, such work cannot be avoided altogether.
Rix expresses surprise that Edith did not tell F Rix, but speculates that she wished to avoid worrying her, just as she refrained from telling her about her poor health for a long period. He states that he was anxious about her, but has discovered that she was receiving good medical advice. |