BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [19 FEB. 1918]
BRACERS 19293. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<London>
Tuesday evg1^, 2^, 3

My dearest Darling

It is dreadful that you are so ill4 — I do hope you will be better soon. I wonder whether it is influenza or what it is — Alas, I didn’t send you the flowers and I don’t know who did — I wish I had — I have been trying to work in spite of my cold and it has taken all my energy. I am better now —a

Litvinov meeting5 was a success, tho’ many people couldn’t understand him. I could, because I was very near. Old Lansbury6 spoke like an Angel — I love him. Then we all descended into underground regions and talked to each other till the guns stopped —

Cap. White7 was on the platform — he is evidently very thick with Mildred Minturn Scott8 — I do dislike him.

Dear Heart’s Love, take care of yourself — stay in bed just as long as you can make yourself — you are so precious — Let me know as soon as you are well enough to want me — I long to comfort you but the Dr. can do it better. All my most tender love, my dear one.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200281.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | W.C.1

• 3

  [date] The date is inferred from the reference to the flu.

• 4

  you are so ill In her letter of 19 February, Colette wrote that she probably had influenza (BRACERS 113131).

• 5

  Litvinov meeting The well-attended meeting was held at Central Hall, Westminster, 18 February 1918. M. Maxim Litvinoff spoke in defence of Bolshevism. Several members of parliament were on the platform, including Arthur Ponsonby and Philip Morrell (Daily Telegraph, 19 Feb. 1918, p. 6).

• 6

  Old Lansbury George Lansbury (1859–1940), owner and editor of the Daily Herald, who later became leader of the Labour Party.

• 7

  Cap. White Captain James Robert (“Jack”) White, (1879–1946), son of Field-Marshal Sir George White, served in the Second South African war. He resigned his commission in 1908 and within a few years became a supporter of Irish home rule. He was imprisoned in 1916 for his agitation against the death sentence of James Connolly. In February 1917 BR had agreed with Colette that White was loveable.

• 8

  Mildred 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 Mabel Minturn (St-Anne-de-Bellevue: Shoreline, 1995).

Textual Notes

• a

  I am better now — inserted