BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [11 OCT. 1919]
BRACERS 19570. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Telegraph House,
Chichester.1^, 2
Saturday3

My Beloved

Your dear dear letter4 has just come — I can’t tell you how wonderfully happy I was with you — I felt so near, so able to be in touch — all the real love came to the surface — I want you to know, Beloved, that I have really understood how I had gone wrong — it was only through thoughtlessness — It is not any effort or artificiality to be different — it is really and truly the way I feel. I do want to bring you comfort and comradeship — I want you, because of me, to feel not alone in the world —

My brother5 has a rum party6 — three more or less gay females, no one else. One of them is married, a S. African interested in gold mines, whom apparently he got to know in the way of business; the second is her sister, who is training to be a professional singer, lives over a hat-shop, and is regarded by my brother as attractive; the third is a Miss Anderson, who works on Vogue,7 is proud of having claustrophobia, and talks without ceasing. All are silly and dull.

But I am so happy in the thought of you that I don’t care how stupid they are —

I am taking care of my cold, and it is getting better. I am dreadfully worried about your general health, and your nervous exhaustion. I wish you would talk to C.A.8 about it some time.

Tuesday tea at Fuller’s9 — My Darling, don’t be too nervous about Helen.10 I know you can do her gloriously. My Heart’s Comrade,11 I love you with all my soul. Take care of yourself, my precious treasure —

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200558.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | London W.C.1. Pmk: HARTING | 11 OC | 19

• 3

  [date] Colette wrote “Harting 11 Oct 1919” on the envelope.

• 4

  Your dear dear letter Not extant.

• 5

  my brother John Francis (“Frank”) Stanley Russell (1865–1931). BR was visiting him at Telegraph House, his country home. For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.3.

• 6

  rum party The two South African sisters have not been identified.

• 7

  Miss Anderson who works on VoguePresumably the British version of the fashion magazine, which began in 1916. Miss Anderson has not been identified.

• 8

  C.A. (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.7.

• 9

  Tuesday tea at Fuller’s In his letter the next day (BRACERS 19571), BR wrote that they would meet at Fuller’s in the Strand and then go on to dine somewhere else early. Presumably this would be after the play finished and before BR lectured at Morley College in the evening of 14 October 1919.

• 10

  too nervous about Helen The London debut of The Trojan Women at the Old Vic was to take place the following Tuesday afternoon, 14 October 1919. Colette had already performed in it in Oxford.

• 11

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