BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [7 SEPT. 1917]
BRACERS 19208. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<London>
Friday1^, 2^, 3

My dearest Darling

Your dear letter this morning was a joy — I did nothing last night — Yes, I think I quite realize the extent of the “rough” side4 of you — I love it, though I don’t bring it out — I love the energy and force that produces it —

Yes, it is something deeper than vanity that hurts in regard to Roy.5 It is the fact that one can seem to come so near a person without there being the contact there seems to be — at least I think so — perhaps not — but it is something like that — I think very likely I was quite wrong about it.

Dearest, I wanted to talk more about the stage when we got onto it — I do believe great things can be done through the stage, but not while it is primarily commercial — it needs good plays, and things are only commercial when they appeal ready-made to what people already are, not when they set something better before them, and aim at winning their way by making people gradually like better things — I think novels and plays have done a very great deal in the last 25 years — but the plays that have had an affect have not been successful at first — Ibsen and Shaw for example —

I think it is splendid that you think of going to the Old Vic — But I wish one could get a theatre that would do good modern plays — We must see what we can do in that direction after the war — One has to be content with little money (at any rate for a long time) if one has any big ambition —

Tonight I dine with Mrs Minturn Scott6 —

I will come tomorrow about 4.30 or 5, if that suits you — or later if you telephone — Will it be all right for me to stay?  I shall assume it is, if you don’t let me know to the contrary —

Good bye till tomorrow my Heart’s Love — I am full of life and happiness, longing to be with you again my Beloved — It is a divine joy to be with you, my Blessed One —

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200188.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | W.C.1. Pmk: LONDON.W.C | 8.15 PM | 7 SEP ?

• 3

  [date] Colette wrote “7 Sep. 1917” on the letter.

• 4

  the “rough” side The letter in which Colette uses “rough” to describe herself is either no longer extant or its transcription was edited to remove that term. She does write on 7 September 1917 that she has “plenty of less good qualities” (BRACERS 113058).

• 5

  Roy Sir Coleridge Arthur Fitzroy Kennard (1885–1948), diplomat and author, known as “Roy” to his friends.

• 6

  Mrs Minturn Scott Mildred Minturn Scott (1875–1922). Mildred Minturn was one of four sisters, belonging to a rich and distinguished New York family. She first met BR and his wife, Alys, at Bryn Mawr in 1896 and became friends with them after she moved to Europe. In 1906 she married Arthur Scott, a headmaster of a boys’ school in France, and the nephew of C.P. Scott of the Manchester Guardian. Her daughter, Leslie Allison, wrote her biography Mildred Minturn (Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue: Shoreline, 1995).