BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [13 AUG. 1919]
BRACERS 19527. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<West Lulworth>
Wednesday1^, 2^, 3

Beloved

Two letters4 came from you this morning — All that lovely country overhanging the Wye is my birth-place: Ravenscroft,5 the house where I was born, is in the woods on the very edge, just above the steep valley. I do wish I had been with you.

Your second letter worries me very much indeed. What has gone wrong about Helen?6 I will of course write to Murray7 if it is of real use. How has life knocked you down this time? O my loved one, I can’t bear to be away from you when you are miserable — it makes me so wretched — I want to stroke your hair and kiss your eyes and pour great oceans of love into you, and make you know the tender care I have for you — I will came at any moment, before the week-end after next, if you would like it — if you telegraph, I will come by next train.

Dear one, have I made you unhappy? I am so afraid I have — You would not be unhappy about me if you saw right into my heart — The beauty of these moonlight nights has made me ache with longing for you, there has never been any human being who has come near being to me what you are — I know I am yours for ever in all that is deepest in me, and that all my life before I was searching for what you give — the comradeship in glorious pain — But for you, I should remain lonely; owing to you, and to you alone, I am not —

My lovely Darling, tell me all you can — I am so distressed and worried by your letter that I can think of nothing else —

Goodbye my Heart’s Comrade8 —

B —

• 1

  [document] Document 200514.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | London W.C.1. Pmk: WEST LULWORTH | 13 AU | 19

• 3

  [date] The date is taken from the envelope’s postmark.

• 4

  Two letters Not extant.

• 5

  Ravenscroft Near Trelleck, Monmouthshire. See S. Turcon’s article (https://russell-homes.mcmaster.ca/home/ravenscroft).

• 6

  Helen The role Colette was to play in The Trojan Women.

• 7

  write to Murray (George) Gilbert Aimé Murray (1866–1957). He was the translator of The Trojan Women. For information on him, see BRACERS 19121, n.4.

• 8

  Heart’s Comrade For the use of this term, see BRACERS 19145, n.12.