BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [20 JULY 1920]
BRACERS 19670. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
70, Overstrand Mansions,
Prince of Wales Road,
Battersea, S.W.1^, 2
Tuesday3

My Darling

I was glad to get a letter4 from you last night. I had heard nothing from Miles5 and was worried, thinking perhaps you had been a failure6 and that that was why you hadn’t written — I am glad —

I am not quite sane about the Bolsheviks — C.A.7 and I differ fundamentally and I hate it. I feel about people who support them just as I used to feel about people who liked the war — I have heard from Miss Black,8 who apparently loves them. If so, it is sure to lead to my breaking with her. I know I am not sane on the subject — I have some wound in my soul, which is tender. I want to get right away and be treated kindly — but that is impossible — I feel beaten, with no fight in me — and I am ashamed of having no fight in me. — Bless you my Beloved — All my love —

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200674.

• 2

  [envelope] Miss Colette O’Niel | “Milestones” Co. | The Theatre | Preston | Lancs. Pmk: BATTERSEA S.W.11 | 1.15 PM | 20 JUL 20

• 3

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

• 4

  a letter Her letter of 17 July 1920 (BRACERS 19670); the opening of the play Milestones was a success and everyone had congratulated her.

• 5

  Miles Miles Malleson (1888–1969), Colette’s husband. For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.4.

• 6

  perhaps you had been a failure In Milestones by Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblock.

• 7

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

• 8

  Miss Black Dora Russell, neé Black (1894–1986). She and BR were married from 1921 until 1935. She had travelled to Russia separately. For further information, see BRACERS 19506, n.3.