BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [23 APR. 1919]
BRACERS 19472. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
70, Overstrand Mansions
Prince of Wales Road,
Battersea, S.W.1^, 2
Wednesday3

My lovely Cherub

I rang you up last night merely to fill your ears with words of love — but you gave me no chance — you rang off before I had had time to begin — so now everything must be said in a letter. Your last 2 letters4 have been so very dear — I wish they had come sooner — I have been having a miserable time with headache and cold and sore eyes, but am well again now. I long for you tomorrow — Will you come here for me as soon after lunch as you can — unless you will come to lunch, which would be much nicer — and we will walk in the Park5 and by the river and then come home to tea. I had rather you called for me here — it gives me more time for work —

Yes, do let’s go to Box Hill the first moment you can manage —

Darling, the spring is come and the birds sing and the blossom is coming on the trees — and it is possible to be happy — If you will come to Ashford6 for a few days, I will make you happy — I will surround you with poetry and love — the dew will be on the grass on sunny mornings and the poplars will shimmer in the setting sun. At last I could be happy and make you happy — The times we have been away lately have been terrible — nothing but exercises in self-control interspersed with sulks on both sides — But now with the spring poetry and beauty are born again — I feel you again my lovely radiant Spirit of the Morning Dew — I want to see the happy light in your eyes — I want to see you gay and young and care-free — just for a few days, while the real world is kept at bay.

Your real world and mine are different — it is not there that we have real contact, but in the world of beauty. All through the winter I forget beauty, and live in grim harsh reality — Now beauty lives again — and I love you again with the love I give to larks and towering clouds and rivers and rushes bending to the stream and willows whitened by the summer wind, and all lovely things that bring to mind the hope of a mystic land beyond pain and strife —

Come with me, my Beloved, to wander by the enchanted banks of Teme7 — and let me pour out to you all the deep joys and pains and visions that often drive me mad, but must find sanity through you or not at all.

B.

Please ring me up as soon as you get home tonight.8

• 1

  [document] Document 200460.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 34 Russell Chambers | Bury Street W.C.1. The franking part of the envelope is missing.

• 3

  [date] The date is taken from “Wednesday” and the placement of this letter following his 22 April letter (BRACERS 19471).

• 4

  last 2 letters These letters are not extant.

• 5

  in the Park Battersea Park.

• 6

  Ashford Colette and BR vacationed there in a house, The Avenue. For further information, see BRACERS 19217, n.4.

• 7

  the enchanted banks of Teme The river which flows past Ashford Carbonel, Shropshire.

• 8

  Please ring me up as soon as you get home tonight. Written up the left side across from the printed letterhead.