BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [18 JAN. 1919]
BRACERS 19415. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<Garsington>
Sat mg.1^, 2^, 3

My Darling Love

I am sorry you keep on having headaches. I hope it won’t last long. Don’t bother about my affairs at present — they are not pressing. C.A.4 writes that he doesn’t want me for a month.5

I am afraid you must have had a day without a letter — I have written every day but the posts from here are so slow — and the first day I was interrupted — I have had to leave French’s,6 as Mrs French is dangerously ill with pleurisy and pneumonia, so I am at the house for the moment. I have just finished reviewing Plotinus.7 — Dearest, I am sorry my letters have been short — I am fulla of love — only pre-occupied in getting to work. I keep thinking of the heavenly time we had at Lynton8 — the view on my mantelpiece recalls it very vividly. You were angelic, and I grew nearer and nearer to you every day. I have now such a fund of happiness in my heart that everything is easy — I bless you, my Cherub, every hour of the day. I will keep the cheque and not cash it. Don’t pay me £50 till I need it. For the present I can do without. I can’t make out your list of £ s d here. Ask Macdonell9 for it. But I know you have nothing to spare.

Glad and surprised about Lansbury10 — and sorry about Priscilla11 —

Shall I come to Bury Str.12 next week-end?  Imagine with your rehearsals13 you couldn’t get away for long. Will you please decide what to do, where to go, etc. — I must get on with work and not spend time on plans, which are difficult from here. Please let me know as soon as possible how many nights I can come for, and whether it is London or elsewhere. I want to be able to make my plans.

Goodbye Beloved. Take care of yourself —  Don’t be troubled, it was natural you should be bad this time. All my loving thoughts surround you, my dear Heart’s Life.

Your
B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200405.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 34 Russell Chambers | Bury Street | LONDON W.C.1. Pmk. GARSINGTON | 18 JA | 19 | OXFORD

• 3

  [date] Colette wrote “1919 18 (?) Jan” on the envelope. 18 January was a Saturday.

• 4

  C.A. (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.7.

• 5

  want me for a month BR was going to share Allen’s newly rented flat in Battersea.

• 6

  leave French’s The French farm on the Garsington estate.

• 7

  reviewing Plotinus “The Religion of Neo-Platonism”, The Nation (London), 24 (25 Jan. 1919): 491–2; a review of W.R. Inge, The Philosophy of Plotinus (B&R C19.03).

• 8

  Lynton Colette, BR and Clifford Allen had spent Christmas at the Cottage Hotel, staying until mid-January.

• 9

  Macdonell  J.H. MacDonnell, Colette’s lawyer.

• 10

  about Lansbury Colette had written on 16 January that George Lansbury had received his passport and was going to France to meet Colonel House of the American delegation at Versailles (BRACERS 113164).

• 11

  about Priscilla Colette’s mother had been unhappy; Colette does not mention the cause.

• 12

  Bury Str. BR’s flat in Russell Chambers was located there; Colette was living in it. She had moved in just before he left Brixton Prison.

• 13

  your rehearsals  Rehearsals for The King and Queen, a play by Rabindranath Tagore, were to begin on Tuesday 21 January (BRACERS 113166). The play was performed on 12 February 1919.

Textual Notes

• a

  full Underlined three times.