BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 19 MAR. 1919
BRACERS 19456. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<Garsington>
19.3.19.1^, 2

My Darling

Thank you for your dear little letter3 — You must have been appalling busy yesterday — I am so glad Miles is a success.4 — I wrote to the hotel-keeper at Lulworth to ask if he knew of anything, and saying that if he did I should come to look at it next week-end. It will be heavenly — We ought to go Friday (12.30 Waterloo) and if we find nothing, go to Swanage, which is the town for Studland. I have to leave here then, as Philip’s5 sister and brother-in-law are coming — the ones who live in the house near Goring. If you and I find nothing, I will go on to Devonshire by myself to look — (unless you can come too) — It is pouring and dismal today but my heart is full of a song of joy — spring is coming, and we shall love each other all over again from the start. I made a mistake looking to you for daily domestic things — I don’t now, and therefore I shall not suffer from jealousy, because it is those things that are prevented by other men, not the occasional times of wonder and beauty. I will make an attempt to find some sort of daily companionship elsewhere6 on a low emotional level — But there is no hurry about that.

Wrinch7 told me Kaufman8 had been arrested, so my guess was wrong. — I wonder whether E.9 has left her home today, as she intended.

Dear Heart, I love you so much — your generosity and love of freedom and your power of soaring into the world of beauty. And I love your truthfulness — Bless you my Beloved — may good angels guard you, and bring you back safe into my arms, which long for you.

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200444.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 34 Russell Chambers | Bury Street | London W.C.1. Pmk: GARSINGTON | MR 19 | 19 | OXFORD. Colette wrote “Garsington” at the top of the letter.

• 3

  dear little letter Not extant.

• 4

  Miles is a success After having a good run in Twelfth Night, Miles Malleson went on to the role of Sir Benjamin Backbite in Sheridan’s A School for Scandal both at the Court Theatre. For further information on Colette’s husband, see BRACERS 19046, n.4.

• 5

  Philip Philip Morrell (1870–1943), a Liberal Member of Parliament and Lady Ottoline’s husband.

• 6

  make an attempt to find some sort of daily companionship elsewhere A prescient warning which bore fruit that summer in BR’s attraction and eventual marriage to Dora Black.

• 7

  Wrinch Dorothy Maud Wrinch (1894–1976), mathematician and theoretical biologist. For more information on her, see BRACERS 19086, n.6.

• 8

  Kaufman George V. Kaufmann, a C.O., had been sentenced to two years’ hard labour at Wormwood Scrubs in January 1917. On 19 May 1917 he wrote to BR that he was out and in hiding — he could be contacted through Rosamund Wedgwood (BRACERS 77703). By October 1919 (BRACERS 4208) he was in Germany, trying to arrange for translations of some of BR’s books; he asked to be remembered to Dorothy Wrinch. Later that year (BRACERS 77704) he wrote to BR that his father wanted him to stay in Germany to study either mathematics or experimental physics, subjects that he knew little about.

• 9

  E. Elizabeth Russell (1866–1941), novelist. For further information on her, see BRACERS 19086, n.6.