BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [21 AUG. 1917]
BRACERS 19195. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<London>
Tuesday1^, 2

My Dearest Darling

Your letters are an unspeakable joy to get. I love every word of them. — I am amused to think that in the little town of Annan you can’t escape God — however, it’s not so bad as Knighton:3 better God than Ll. G.4 Your account of the Scotch Sunday sounds awful — I had thought it had more or less died out — You must read the account of the Sunday that Shelley and Hogg spent in Edinburgh — in Hogg’s life of S.5

I have just come from the Labour Conference.6 The Miners’ change had made us all suppose we were sure to be beaten, so the result was a relief, in spite of the narrow majority. I gathered they meant to act on the vote. And probably the miners will swing back again soon — so there is much to hope. Henderson7 was dignified but not effective — Barnes8 was priceless — said it was rot to be out against capitalism, which was a jolly fine Thing — if he had to choose between labour and the Govt., he might choose the Govt. — all in a lachrymose virtuous Tartuffe9 voice, because Smillie10 had called him a blackleg. Barnes did us a lot of good. The meeting was sharply and evenly divided between jusquauboutistes11 and Stockholmites.

I am getting proofs of a new volume of philosophical essays12 — It is possible they may interest you — most of them are an attempt to picture the eternal world in which I try to live. I must get back to philosophy — the call of it has grown insistent since we were away together.

I wonder how you like being at Keswick — whether you love the country, and how you get on with père et mère.13 You are always always in my mind — I long for you to be back. Our time away has given me an extraordinary longing to be out of the turmoil, living so that ideas can grow — quietly and fruitfully — I know that with your help I can.

Goodnight my sweetest Dear — my Heart’s Comrade.14 I love you with all my soul and with all my being.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200175.

• 2

  [date] Colette wrote “21 Aug. 1917” on the letter.

• 3

  Knighton They stayed at the Norton Arms in Knighton on the first night of their vacation together.

• 4

  Ll. G. David Lloyd George (1863–1945) had become British Prime Minister on 7 December 1916.

• 5

  Hogg’s life of S. Thomas Jefferson Hogg, The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley (London: Routledge, 1906) (Russell Library 0861).

• 6

  Labour Conference The second session of the special Labour Conference, convened to reaffirm the decision made on 10 August 1917 that the Party would take part in the International Socialist Conference at Stockholm.

• 7

  Henderson Arthur Henderson (1863–1935), trade unionist, politician, and secretary of the Labour Party. Although opposed to Britain entering the war, once that decision had been taken, he supported the war. He joined Lloyd George’s War Cabinet in December 1916. Henderson believed that the Labour Party should participate in the International Socialist Conference in Stockholm, thinking that it would aid Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky’s bid to keep Russia in the war. His cabinet colleagues disagreed, and Henderson resigned from the War Cabinet.

• 8

  Barnes George Nicoll Barnes (1859–1940), trade unionist and politician. He succeeded Arthur Henderson in the War Cabinet in August 1917.

• 9

  Tartuffe The title character in Tartuffe, a seventeenth-century play by Molière. Tartuffe passes himself off as pious and devout.

• 10

  Smillie Robert Smillie (1857–1940), trade unionist and politician. Since 1912 he had been President of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain and was instrumental in getting many miners to switch their support from the Liberal Party to the Labour Party. In 1915 he became the president of the National Council Against Conscription. The following year Smillie delivered BR’s speech on “Political Ideals” in Glasgow because BR was prevented by the Government from travelling to any coastal area. Smillie declined the position of food controller in Lloyd George’s cabinet.

• 11

  jusquauboutistesThose who fight to the bitter end to secure victory.

• 12

  proofs of a new volume of philosophical essaysMysticism and Logic (B&R A28), published in January 1918. Colette received the proofs on 22 August.

• 13

  père et mère Catherine Marshall’s parents, Frank and Caroline. Colette and Miles were staying with the Marshall family at Hawse End, Keswick, in the Lake District. Colette called them “kind and hospitable”.

• 14

  Heart’s Comrade For use of this term, see BRACERS 19145, n.12.