BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [2 MAY 1917]
BRACERS 19160. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<London>
Wed.1^, 2

My Beloved

I loved your letters3 this morning.  They were a great joy.

I did not mean to suggest that you did not care about politics, but only that you have never put your ambition into that direction. Work in the office at John Str.4 is useful, but no outlet for ambition. My own belief is that you have a great native talent for politics, probably far more than for acting even, tho’ as I have never seen you in either capacity I don’t know. I feel convinced you could be a very good speaker; also you would be a good judge of personalities and forces; also you have a very strong will and an intense desire for a better world. These are the things one needs in order to achieve really great things. If you were to go to Sylvia Pankhurst5 or any one like that, and offer yourself as a speaker, you would be jumped at. I saw Miles,6 and sounded him about this: he seemed to agree.

Of course I am biassed, because I should love you to have work in which I could help you, and in which we could cooperate. But don’t dismiss the idea without another thought; I do really think there is something in it, and I have thought so ever since I began to know you well.

If the idea suited you, it would make a vast difference to me; probably all the difference between productiveness and sterility. But of course it would be no good unless you liked it for its own sake.

My Beloved, I haven’t time to write about other things — I wish I had. I love you very dearly.

About money: I hold certain debentures7 which I have never been able to sell, but it seems I shall be able to sell them at Xmas. That would give me cash, and solve all the problem.  Without your debts, you would be quite comfortably off.

Be happy my Heart’s Comrade.8 I know you have a great future before you.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200136.

• 2

  [date] Colette wrote “2 May 1917” on the letter.

• 3

  your letters Her letter of 1 May is divided into parts, with two “later” sections (BRACERS 113015 and 113016).

• 4

  John Str. The location of the No-Conscription Fellowship office.

• 5

  Sylvia Pankhurst (1882–1960), militant suffragist, feminist and socialist.

• 6

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

• 7

  I hold certain debentures Colette refused his offer of help, writing on 2 May that “you are on no account to sell your debentures for me” (BRACERS 113017).

• 8

  Heart’s Comrade  For the usage of this term, see BRACERS 19045, n.12.