BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [9 DEC. 1919]
BRACERS 19594. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<The Hague>
Tuesday1^, 2^,3

My dearest Darling

I found your Friday letter at the post yesterday — thank you for it — I am glad of what you say about the Dr.4 I hope you will use the new prescription.

I don’t know what I want for Xmas. The only thing I can think of it a sponge,5 but I expect you wouldn’t think that a suitable present. I wonder what you would like?

Wittgenstein6 writes that he can’t reach here till the 13th which is a nuisance. But we will start for Lynton7 on the 22nd — C.A.8 will tell you the time of the train. My Heart’s Life, I long to be there with you — with all that beauty — All the deepest things in me are your irrevocably, and call out for you when we are apart — All love, my Beloved.

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200584.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance M<alleson> | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | London W.C.1 | England. Pmk: s’ GRAVENHAGE. | 12–IN | 9.XII | 1919

• 3

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

• 4

  what you say about the Dr. This letter is either not extant, or the remarks about a doctor were removed from “Letters to Bertrand Russell from Colette Malleson, 1916–1969”. There is no letter in the “Letters” typescript that is dated “Friday”.

• 5

  a sponge On the same day Colette wrote to BR saying that if he asked for a sponge for his Christmas present she would “die of disappointment” (BRACERS 113180).

• 6

  Wittgenstein Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), eminent philosopher and former student of BR’s. In his letter of 27 November 1919 to BR, Wittgenstein had stated his intention of being in The Hague 13–20 December (Wittgenstein in Cambridge, ed. B. McGuinness [Oxford: Blackwell, 2008], p. 110).

• 7

  Lynton They were going to spend the holidays there with Clifford Allen as they had the previous year.

• 8

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