BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [6 DEC. 1916]
BRACERS 19086. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<London?>
Wednesday evg.1^, 2

My Darling

In all likelihood I shall be able to see “Reginald”3 tomorrow. The C.M. is Tuesday,4 which interrupts my time with my pupils at Garsington.5 It is a nuisance, and I shall have to cut that time as short as possible.

Miss Wrinch6 came today, bringing 2 boxes full of papers from Cambridge which I wanted. I gave her a lesson and set her on to a lot of odd jobs. Tonight I am dining with Buckler of the American Embassy7 — Charles Trevy8 is to be there — I hope I shall hear some political news. It will be a good thing in the end to have Ll.G. in power9 now; he won’t win the war, and when that is obvious people will consent to peace. But it will mean hell for the next 6 months.

I am fearfully tired. The crisis has been agonizing. And uncertainty about CA10 keeps my nerves on the rack. I want rest, and there is no rest to be got while the war lasts. When I was young I did not know what weariness means.

We shall all come back together Tuesday from the C.M. I suppose. Might I come to you then? Instead of the following Monday?11 I don’t think Whitehead’s paper12 is very important — I have found out more about it. I needn’t go back to Garsn. till Wed. morning.

O my Darling, I long for your fingers in my hair and your loving ways. I could find rest with you if we could be together fully and easily. It must, must be managed somehow — when the spring comes, if it ever does. I love you my dear dear Heart.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200055.

• 2

  [date] Colette wrote “6 Dec. 1916” on the letter.

• 3

  “Reginald” (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For further information on him, see BRACERS 19046.

• 4

  The C.M. is Tuesday Court Martial of Clifford Allen, scheduled for Tuesday 12 December 1916.

• 5

  my pupils at Garsington During the second week of December, BR and his four logic students stayed at Garsington Manor, the country home of Lady Ottoline and Philip Morrell.

• 6

  Miss Wrinch Dorothy Maud Wrinch (1894–1976), mathematician and theoretical biologist; one of BR’s logic students in the autumn of 1916.

• 7

  Buckler of the American Embassy W.H. (William Hepburn) Buckler (1867–1962), American diplomat and classical scholar. Acquainted with BR at Trinity College in the early 1890s, Buckler acted as a conduit for the confidential transmission of British dissent to President Wilson.

• 8

  Charles Trevy C.P. (Charles Philips) Trevelyan (1870–1958), politician.

• 9

  Ll.G. in powernow David Lloyd George (1863–1945) became British Prime Minister on 7 December 1916, supplanting H.H. Asquith, who resigned on 5 December.

• 10

  CA See “Reginald” above.

• 11

  following Monday 18 December 1916 when the Aristotelian Society was scheduled to meet with Whitehead presenting a paper.

• 12

  Whitehead’s paper “The Organization of Thought”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, n.s. 17 (1916–17): 58–76. BR participated in discussion of the paper by Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), mathematician and philosopher. For further information on him, see BRACERS 19080, n.6.