BR TO OTTOLINE MORRELL, [4 JULY 1911]
BRACERS 17216. ALS. Morrell papers #136, Texas
Proofread by K. Blackwell et al.

The Wyche.1^, 2
Tuesday night.

My Dearest Love

Your letter of yesterday reached me at tea, and was a great joy. I am so glad you are feeling well — I feel the oppression of your headaches and tiredness when you are not well. I do wish I had been with you when you were feeling gay — it is so delicious when you do. How dear of you to get me a little thing. I would much rather you got the new ring — it sounds lovely. I am very rich just now, as Trinity has just paid me £210. I expect I shan’t have Julian’s Lear on Friday, but I shall have it the next time I come. Will Lamb be with you Friday? If so we had better meet at Ipsden — I will come from Reading in a taxi. It would be much nicer than London. — I have not written a word of my book today — I had proofs, and did not have ideas. We have found a pond in which we have had two delicious swims, but North cut his foot, so we can’t walk very much for a day or two. We have endless talk about all sorts of topics — it is funny knowing him and his parents so well — he is a blend of both. It is not often that one can have an equal friendship with parents and children; the mixture of his parents in him interests me, they are so unlike each other that one wouldn’t have thought they could mix. He has immense strength of character and very great reserve. I expect some day to be of great use to him — he is sure to get into difficulties of some sort, probably through generosity, certainly not through any bad quality. He is rather terrific, because his moral judgments have the uncompromising rigidity of youth. But I observe that he is beginning to learn charity.

I told North I was intending to shave off my moustache, but he was horrified and said it would spoil my manly beauty, or words to that effect. I mustn’t do it till things have quieted down. And then I must find some person who thinks it would be an excellent plan.

Malvern itself is loathsome, but we are on the hills some miles away, and it is really very beautiful, as well as very healthy, which is important for North. His appetite is even greater than mine!

Darling I must go to bed as I shan’t get on with my book tomorrow. I have fresh proofs too. I do long for you Darling. I find myself saying words of love inwardly at all moments. But I am so full of deep peace that I am always happy now, and I feel I love all the world — very nearly.

Dearest I love hearing everything you did in London — it all interests me. Yes, lives are terribly tragic — Lion’s certainly is. They are more tragic in their main outlines as a rule than they are in the every-day detail. That is what tempts people to frivolity, to forgetting to live in the great things — because the great things, to most people, bring mainly suffering. Love does make life easy, because it makes joy more perfect the more one can live with what is really of importance.

Goodnight my life my joy. I love you love you love you.

Your utterly devoted
B —

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