BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 20 AUG. 1917
BRACERS 19194. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<London>
Monday Aug. 20. ’171^, 2

My Darling

I was glad to get your long letter3 this morning telling of your walk in the evening, and of the tour — every word interested me — I ought to be sorry that you feel such a desolation — but my Dearest I feel so desolate myself without you that I can’t be really sorry.  I know it must be worse for you, because I am distracted by work — but I feel your absence every moment, however busy I am. I do love you most deeply, my dear one.

I didn’t go to Garsington4 — my train stopped at Banbury so I posted my note there, to get it to you sooner. Katherine Mansfield5 had an engagement she had forgotten, so I haven’t seen her. I dined last night with Arthur Dakyns,6 as Smith7 won’t let me dine at home Sundays — mild and unexciting. Today I had a terrific field-day with Miss Kyle8 — finished the Ploughshare article9 — wrote a front page Tribunal article10 — and 50 million letters (approximately).11 I am reading May Sinclair’s Defence of Idealism12 for review — it is not very bad.

I enclose a letter from E.M. Forster13 the novelist, which may interest you and Miles.14 “Winstanley” is a pacifist Fellow of Trinity; “Dot Grant Duff” is a sister of Mrs Huth Jackson.15  Please return the letter.

I gather the Conference tomorrow will turn down Stockholm and lick Ll. G’s boots.16 But you will know before this reaches you. — I go to Garsn. Sat. to Monday. — London is beastly. I want to get back to philosophy. But above all I want to get back to you — I didn’t think I should miss you so dreadfully until you had been gone longer. I long to see your eyes shine and to feel your arms about me — It is heaven to sink into sleep with you beside me — My Darling, my Beloved, I yearn for you —

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200174.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | care of Mrs. Marshall | Hawse End | Keswick. Pmk: LONDON W.C | 8.15 PM | 20 AUG 17?

• 3

  your long letter Her letter of 19 August 1917 (BRACERS 113045).

• 4

  Garsington Garsington Manor, near Oxford, the county home of Lady Ottoline and Philip Morrell.

• 5

  Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923). BR first met the short-story writer in July 1915; an intense friendship began in November 1916. Her early death was caused by tuberculosis.

• 6

  Arthur Dakyns Dakyns (1883–1941). The Dakyns family lived in Haslemere so BR  would have been acquainted with the family. BR had moved to Bagley Wood in 1905; Daykns was at Oxford, receiving his Lit. Hum. degree in 1906. In a letter of 1 January 1906 to Lucy Donnelly (Auto. 1: 276–7), BR writes: “Arthur has inherited a great deal of his father’s charm. He is the only person up here (except the Murrays) that I feel as a real friend….”

• 7

  Smith The butler at Frank’s home in Gordon Square.

• 8

  Miss Kyle Eva Kyle, No-Conscription Fellowship secretary who had a typing service. She also worked privately for BR on his book Roads to Freedom, which BR dictated to her in the early months of 1918.

• 9

  the Ploughshare article Possibly “Human Character and Social Institutions”, The Ploughshare 3 (May 1918): 100–4 (B&R C18.04; 97 in Papers 14).

• 10

  front page Tribunal article “The International Situation”, 23 August 1917, which appeared on pages 1 and 4 (B&R C17.47; 64 in Papers 14).

• 11

  50 million letters (approximately) Only two are known to have survived, this letter and one to May Sinclair.

• 12

  May Sinclair’s Defence of Idealism BR wrote two reviews: “Idealism on the Defensive” in The Nation (B&R C17.15) and “Metaphysics” in The English Review (B&R C17.56; reprinted as 12 and 13, respectively, in Papers 8). Mary (May) Sinclair was an established novelist when she published A Defence of Idealism (London: Macmillan, 1917). Well reviewed, it resulted in her becoming the first female member of the Aristotelian Society.

• 13

  a letter from E.M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970), novelist, was living in Alexandria, Egypt when his letter of 28 July 1917 (BRACERS 76601) was written. Forster noted that he had been reading a copy of BR’s Principles of Social Reconstruction owned by Winstanley who was then in Cairo. Forster also wrote that he has met Miss Dot Grant Duff.

• 14

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

• 15

  “Dot Grant Duff” is a sister of Mrs Huth Jackson Anabel Huth Jackson (née Grant Duff) became a friend of BR’s while they were still children. She wrote a memoir A Victorian Childhood (London: Methuen, 1932). BR quotes from the memoir in his Autobiography (1: 30). The sisters’ father was Sir Montstuart Grant Duff.

• 16

  the conference tomorrow will turn down Stockholm and lick Ll. G’s boots On 10 August 1917 a special conference of the Labour Party had agreed to send delegates to an International Socialist Conference at Stockholm. On 21 August by a narrow majority of 3,000 votes the previous decision of the Conference was confirmed. The sending of delegates was opposed by Prime Minister David Lloyd George; the government threatened to deny passports to any named delegates.