BR TO DORA RUSSELL, 14 APR. 1924
BRACERS 19947. ALS. McMaster. SLBR 2: #357
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by K. Blackwell

In traina between Cincinatiab (O.) and Louisville (Kentucky)
Monday April 14.

My Darling1 —

There has been no chance of letters from home since I left N.Y. but I shall hope for some in Chicago. I am right in the middle of my heaviest bout, and don’t find it so exhausting as I expected. I travelled straight from Dartmouth (N.H.) to Washington, where I arrived in the early morning, very glad of the Bibesco luxury.2 After a bath and breakfast I felt quite fit. Then I saw journalists till lunch, then Elizabeth B. took me to Mt. Vernon3 in her motor. I had seen it in 1896 and remembered it as lovely; this time I liked it just as much. Evidently beauty depends on slave labour. Then I had a talk with the Chinese Ambassador, who has a son at Winchester; then I saw Justice Holmes,4 who is fearfully jolly — 80, but seems 60, and full of fun. He remembers the time when there were no W.C’s. Then a magnificent vast dinner — I was glad to find myself next Senator Walsh, the chief muck-raker of the oil scandals.5 But he said nothing interesting. Then I had supper at the Bibesco’s, with champagne, and tumbled into my train and fell asleep (not drunk). She is like all the Asquith set of women, full of vanity but no temperament — absolutely futile, trying hard to be witty but not succeeding. She wants people to wish to make love to her so that she can have the pleasure of a gentle repulse. But I enjoyed being able to be cynical. I get bored by earnestness without truth, which the Yankesc exact — the whole business is unutterably boring — I can’t even observe, because it would be an extra fatigue. I think of the money growing more and the days to come growing less — otherwise I have no consolations. The people I meet would all be better dead. Yet I lecture well and am always a great success. The only bright spot so far was Dartmouth, where I had some talk with undergraduates who were really nice. O Darling I do want to be home and I ache for you. At Chicago I stay with the Nortons6 — not with Helen Dudley’s people, as her mother is ill. One third of our separation over. I keep thinking of the moment when I see you again. Perhaps you will meet me in London if Liverpool seems too far and expensive.

We could stay a night at the Paddn. Hotel and go down in the morning. Oh will that day ever come! Sweet Love I long for you.

B.

<on envelope:> Louisville. Yr. letter Apr. 1 just received.

• 1

  envelope: Hon. Mrs B. Russell | 31 Sydney Street | London S.W.3 Pmk: LOUISVILLE KY. APR14 5 PM 1924. 3 | England

• 2

  Bibesco luxury Russell had stayed with Elizabeth Bibesco (1897–1945) at the Romanian Legation in Washington. She was Asquith’s younger daughter who had married Prince Antoine Bibesco, a rich Romanian diplomat. She became a writer, though her literary fame was eclipsed by her reputation as a rich, fashionable, and witty society woman who fascinated men.

• 3

  Mt. Vernon Mount Vernon in Virginia had been George Washington’s plantation. By 1924 it was preserved as a historical monument.

• 4

  Justice Holmes Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841–1935), the American jurist and Supreme Court justice.

• 5

  Senator Walsh … oil scandals Thomas James Walsh (1859–1933), Democratic Senator. In 1922–23 his exposure of corruption and bribery in the leasing of oil reserves helped undermine Warren Harding’s presidency. “Muck-raker” had a non-pejorative use in American politics at this time to describe those who exposed abuses and corruption.

• 6

  Nortons Henry Kittredge Norton (1884–1965) and his wife Edith. Norton was a left-wing journalist who in 1920–23 had travelled widely in Russia and China. In 1924 he was working for a law firm in Chicago.

Textual Notes

• a

  In train Russell deleted the Hanover Inn address of the letterhead paper he used.

• b

  Cincinati misspelling of Cincinnati

• c

  Yankes misspelling of Yanks or Yankees