BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [11 JAN. 1917]
BRACERS 19105. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

34 Russell Chambers
Bury Str. W.C.1
Thur. mg.2

My Darling, my Loved One, my Angel,

<I>t was a joy to hear from you again at last. I had been wondering and wondering what had happened — did you not get a letter I dropped in your door Sunday evening? If you didn’t, it must be in Miles’s3 pocket.

I am longing for Saturday, my Dearest — it will be heaven to be with you again my Heart.

Yes, I have been elected Substitute chairman,4 so I shall have to put my back into it.  It means giving up thinking for the present — at first I felt dismayed, but on reflection I am glad of the prospect of a holiday honestly come by — it is a holiday to be fussing about instead of sitting at home thinking.

I have no national committee5 Sat. and Sunday — they are put off till the following week —  that was why I suggested this Sunday — I am free all Sunday.

I think a certain comedy is advisable on account of the chance of detectives. I will come to you with an (empty) piece of my own luggage, and you can fill it with what you want to bring, and I can take it here, and back next day. I suppose you won’t want much? I have to lecture to my pupils6 Sat. morning, and I am afraid I must go to the office after lunch. So I can come to you about 4.30 and we can come here at once. If you don’t approve my bit of comedy (which rather amuses me), it isn’t important.

My Beloved, it will be such a divine happiness — I dare not let myself imagine it.

My love, my dear dear love.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200077.

• 2

  [date] Colette wrote “11th Jan. 1917” on the letter.

• 3

  Miles Miles Malleson, Colette’s husband. For further information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.4.

• 4

  elected Substitute chairman Of the No-Conscription Fellowship. The election results were published in The Tribunal on 18 January. Clifford Allen, who was elected chairman, had just returned to prison, which meant in effect that BR would be in charge.

• 5

  national committee Of the No-Conscription Fellowship.

• 6

  my pupils Beginning in the autumn of 1916, four students met  weekly with BR at Gordon Square, the home of his brother Frank, to study Principia Mathematica. They were Dorothy Wrinch, Jean Nicod, Victor Lenzen, and Wallace Armstrong, according to Victor Lenzen. An annotation to Letter no. 41 (BRACERS 112973, document 104579AO) in the typescript “Letters to Bertrand Russell from Constance Malleson, 1916–1969”, indicates that Raphael Demos was also part of the group, but not until 1917–18.