BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [14 SEPT. 1919]
BRACERS 19558. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<West Lulworth>
<letterhead>
70, Overstrand Mansions,
Prince of Wales Road,
Battersea, S.W.1
Sunday2

My Beloved

A thousand thanks for your letter3 yesterday — You do say wonderful things about love — O my Soul’s Life, I live in you — all the deep regions of me only live in you — They are bound up with you for ever, and would die without you — I long for you here,4 so much that it is hard not to seem absent-minded — my thoughts float away to you and I forget, and what is present dissolves in a mist. — How beyond words divine it will be when you are here — 24th, a Wednesday. I only have this place till the 29th, but I make no doubt Randall5 will let me stay longer it you can — Post is going and I must stop — I hope as it is cooler you are better — I am glad of Murray’s opinion6 of you — do you think he identified you with the lady he saw at Isola Bella? All my heart, Beloved — Oh I long for your arms —

B

I have been reading over again “In the Stalls”7 — It is excellent. There are just one or 2 things I don’t think good. “She made a child-likea tragic figure” has too much the note of self-love: it would antagonize the reader. Moreover the rest of the story is done from inside, so one is compelled to substitute “she reflected that she made a child-likeb tragic figure”. It is dangerous to oscillate between inside and outside views of one’s characters: it can only be done with caution.

On p. 4 “she didn’t know!” is too emphatic. Italics are always risky; so are notes of exclamation. I should put “but … she didn’t know....”, without italics or note of exclamation.

Neither requires re-typing. The second could be corrected in proof — the first only wants a few words scratched out.

I should send it to the English Review8 if I were you. I enclose a letter and envelope9 for the purpose.

• 1

  [document] Document 200545.

• 2

  [date] The date is assigned based on the letter’s placement in the sequence.

• 3

  your letter Not extant.

• 4

  here Newlands Farm, West Lulworth.

• 5

  Randall Randall handled the rents at Newlands Farm.

• 6

  Murray’s opinion Presumably Gilbert Murray’s opinion of her acting in the role of Helen in The Trojan Women.

• 7

  “In the Stalls” A short story written by Colette. It has not survived.

• 8

  send it to the English Review She decided not to submit it. See BRACERS 19562.

• 9

  letter and envelope Not extant.

Textual Notes

• a

  child-like after deleted path e

• b

  child-like after deleted pa