BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 15 SEPT. 1919
BRACERS 19560. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

Lulworth
<letterhead>
70, Overstrand Mansions,
Prince of Wales Road,
Battersea, S.W.1^, 2
15 Sp. ’19. Evening.

My Darling Love

Your letter of Saturday came this afternoon. I wish most tremendously that it were possible to have you here3 before the 24th but it can’t possibly be managed. It is a great sorrow to me — but it is very little more than a week now. If you can stay beyond the 29th, it is sure to be all right — so doa arrange to stay till your rehearsals begin at the Old Vic.4 I am glad you are in it — and I shall see you! I hope Eve5 won’t be in — tho’ Cassandra would be an easy part6 for her.

My heart’s Life, I can’t bear to think of your being ill and unhappy. What is your illness? And what makes you unhappy? I long to hold you in my arms and warm your heart with love. I shall be thankful when this time of separation is over. I want to be a hundred times more loving with you than I have ever been before — I want you to be able to trust me to be kind. I want to be with you just as much as you wish, but not more — I don’t want to force myself on you — O Colette, I love you so deeply — much more profoundly and unalterably than in former times —

Tuesday. Thank you, my dear one, for your letter this morning. I think you had better send “In the Stalls”7 to the English Review — my letter is undated8 so it will do all right. — O my Darling, I do want the time when you are here — I want you to be soothed and made happy by all the beauty of the place — you seem discouraged, I don’t know why. Beloved, we will have a heavenly 5 days — we will make them long by intensity of love and beauty — we will grow deep into each other’s souls, so near, so near that we seem one — My dear, my dear, I do want you to be happy and triumphant — and it will come sooner or later, I do believe. I love you, I love you, with all my being — I feel I shall hardly be able to bear the joy of your arms about me — Goodbye my Heart’s Comrade9 —

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200547.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | London W.C.1. Pmk: WOOL | 16 SP | 19

• 3

  here At Newlands Farm.

• 4

  rehearsals begin at the Old Vic For The Trojan Women. The play opened at the Old Vic on 14 October 1919; there were four performances in October. Performances were also given there on 16 and 18 December 1919.

• 5

  Eve Evelyn Walsh Hall. For information on her, see BRACERS 19394, n.8.

• 6

  Cassandra would be an easy part Evelyn Walsh Hall played Hecuba in The Trojan Women in Oxford, a role that was taken over by Sybil Thorndike in London. The role of Cassandra was played by Rita Thom when the play was performed at the Old Vic in October 1919. Muriel Pratt had the role when The Trojan Women was performed at the Alhambra on 18 November 1919 in a benefit for The League of Nations. It is not known who played Cassandra when the production moved to the Holborn Empire.

• 7

  “In the Stalls” A short story written by Colette. It was not published, and prepublication documents are not extant.

• 8

  letter is undated BR’s covering letter (not extant) for the submission of Colette’s short story to an editor. See BRACERS 19558, n.9.

• 9

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

Textual Notes

• a

  do Underlined four times.