They congratulate Alys on her marriage and mention the present to come.

Writing as an old friend, he offers congratulations on Alys's marriage. He cannot attend the wedding.

Many Y branches are listed in the letter. Together they offer congratulations on Alys's marriage to the "Honble Bertrand Russell".

A wedding poem written by Michael Field. Michael Field was a pseudonym used by Katherine Harris Bradley and her niece and ward Edith Emma Cooper.

Among the lines: "A girl stands up, crowned white".

The letter is signed "Frances". The letterhead lists Frances E. Willard as president.

Following this letter are two newsclippings, one reporting the wedding of BR and Alys and dated 1894/12/24 and mentioning that she was nominated for the Vestry of Westminster at the same time. The other clipping is "The Implications of Collectivism", from the Fabian News, n.d.

Alys reports on a successful meeting. "If Voller cannot meet me with the phaeton, I will take a cab."

The letter is incomplete. BR is playing croquet. The 3rd page wonders "whether you will really like Santayana."

Alys is staying with a deadly boring family. She refers to a nearby steam train making less noise than the Fiesole one.

Alys mentions the Braithwaites.

BR wrote Alys from the British Museum yesterday.

Alys will be meeting BR on Monday, this being Saturday.

She and BR do not want Lion Phillimore to be with them in Venice.

"Perhaps Moore is sitting on thee now, or perhaps old Shad H. [Shadworth Hodgson, 1832-1912] is boring you all to death." "The Millhangar sounds like an enchanted spot, and thee an enchanter."

Alys received "the usual sort from Frau Lily, full of" German words.

"It gives me a pain that Moore should not think well of thy paper. He must be wrong!"

Alys's father seems to be ill. (He lived 1827-1899.)

Alys has found their long-lost maps.

"The third volume of Creighton has come...."

The rain spoiled the women's grand new peacock feather hats. Alys lent Bonté Amos "Gaston de Latour and Evelyn Geddes on Sex".

"It would be very nice if thee could write Granny a short note on Tuesday."

"I have found and put away for future use as gifts 3 hideous wedding-presents, the last of ours I believe."

Alys asked Janet Achurch, an actress, for elocution lessons.

Alys will come home by the 2.45. BR should "walk in to meet me."

Alys went to a play, Cleopatra, and had lunch with Ethel Barrymore.

Alys put off a visit from Cobden-Sanderson.

"Nothing has happened, so I have nothing to say."

About Lion: "There is certainly a manner possessed by thy class which wild American and Irish girls have to acquire."

Alys formed another branch, presumably of the Y.

Alys spent time in Cardiff with Aunt Agatha. She and Lady Russell are both nicer when they are separated.

Alys recalls a charming letter from BR 3 1/2 years ago, "which I read and re-read in my bath."

Bonté and her mother, Mrs. Amos, are playing games. Sturges is with BR.

Writing from Grimsby, Alys says fisherwomen "even swap living husbands sometimes."

BR should write to Lady Russell tomorrow.

On Tom Grenfell, BR's cousin.

Alys is talking with Mrs. Ralph Wedgwood.

Much about the Amoses.

Alys engaged in various gossips "against" people she names.

Alys has a good group of Y girls.

BR requests that Principles of Social Reconstruction and Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare be sent to I.F. Stone.

"I see that Mr. Whitehead's father has died, and I have written Evelyn a decent note of condolence."

"How wealthy we are! It is too grand. Let us spend a hundred or two helping our friends, just for the fun of feeling rich."

"Friday" written on letterhead of "The Palace, Londonderry".

"Hurrah for no popery". [No reason is given for this exclamation.]

"I long to be back at my desk and our Gibbon evenings." Last week was a perfect week with BR.

"I simply rejoice at the thought of that £1000 for Newnham." They'll likely pay down remaining debt.

Someone Alys refers to as B.F.C.C. is a pig and makes her furious. [That is Benjamin Francis Conn Costelloe, 1855-1899, her brother-in-law.]

On women's equal right to smoke.

"I am glad thee is getting a lot of work done. So am I. Perhaps we had better always stay apart!"

"I was too disgustingly cross this morning—forgive me."

"I have answered Mrs. Sidgwick's letter that we shall be delighted to become ordinary members of the College." I.e., Newnham.

Alys has bought a lovely 3-volume edition of William Robertson's Life of Charles V.

"Tell Moore that I have been seeing his medical sister this afternoon, and she sends him a message that she would be very pleased to see him on his way through town. She tells me that contradictory mess (?) is a family trait."

Alys visited Llandaff Cathedral.

Alys saw Cyrano and BR is due to go. Mariechen and Logan are with him.

"Sunday". Written from Italy, Alys awaits BR's arrival.

BR is cycling. In Bologna he will get mail she has sent him.

BR's proofs must be on the way.

Alys is taking Italian lessons. "The teacher's mother was thy mother's governess at Alderley."

"North Stoke Hotel".

Alys is hoping to hear BR's Cambridge news.

"It is quite agitating to think that Moore only just got his Fellowship."

Written in the summer of 1899 when Costelloe was ill and could not manage to keep Friday's Hill Cottage. (Remarkable Relations, p. 191) "Logan, Bertie and I think that we can manage thy cottage in this way. We will take on all expenses, paying rent and taxes in Bertie's name." Further details of the arrangement follow.

Alys tells Frank he has not realized how inconvenient it has been not to have set times in the year when Mariechen is allowed to see Ray and Karen.

Frank died later in the year.

"I have sent thy letter to Gaz——. I am sure Mariechen would approve of it." [BR wrote Alys about Humbert and gave her his reply to mail. It was time to threaten legal measures, he told her, though it didn't commit them.] Alys's father was a glass-manufacturer.

"The death of a duke is a dull news when we want to hear that the Boers are surrounded."

Dora Pease means to accept Sanger. [He married her in 1900.]

"Withers says that Mabel Edith can prosecute for criminal bigamy, and that she will certainly get Frank in prison, if she does! He is furious at Frank."

"Here is a page in the diary of a modern woman". There are many entries.

Hewins thinks BR ought to attend their function (LSE's?) on Monday week in order to show his connection with the place.

Alys writes on the letterhead of the W.W.C.T.U. Convention, Edinburgh.

She dislikes Mr. S. more and more.

Despite the "Scotch Sunday", BR's letters to her were delivered.

She would like to work on Newnham with BR: "I feel horribly cut off from thee this time, now that I have admitted the possibility of other work." The society she is involved with is too religious for her to take a prominent role in it.

"I am afraid we must both go to the unveiling of that tablet." Also to the Hewinses (re LSE, no doubt; see record 123758).

Alys mentions Roger Fry staying at "our" hotel.

She is glad BR has plenty of proofs to correct.

"It is grand the way I attend to everything, without fuss or bother!"

Mrs. Amos spread a rumour that Alys smoked.

"Admiral Beaumont will probably be left near Vancouver."

[See "Arethusa Going to China", New York Times, 8 July 1900, p. 2 ("Victoria, B.C., July 7.—This morning, when the second-class British cruiser Arethusa arrived at Esquimault [Esquimalt, B.C., Canada] from Vancouver, she was met by a telegram from Rear Admiral Beaumont, in command of the British squadron in the Pacific, asking the skipper how long it would take him to prepare for service in Chinese waters."]

Alys visited the place where the Amberleys honeymooned.

"I know that thee is happy with Alfred to talk to."

"May thee soon see Moore and get plenty of shop."

BR is evidently still with Moore.

BR found "all Cambridge reading thy book". The Webbs also found BR's fame to be growing as "a young mathematician". They plan to bring Haldane down to the Russells in November.

Alys opined in a discussion against respect for parents.

Quite a bit about Mrs. Amos, though the printout is almost unreadable.

"I am indeed glad thy philosophy does not run to popular novels?" (No explanation.)

"I imagine thee just getting to work now (9.30)...." He is to tell Edmund to meet her, and she will see BR about 7.

Alys tells BR to take care of himself and the cats, "imagining thee at tea after, I hope, a brisk walk".

Evidently she and BR are reading Clarendon's account of Cromwell.

Alys signs herself "Pigue".

"Don't kill thyself with overwork, as I am doing!"

On the difference their marriage has made to her character.

Alys is staying in a grand house. She was provided with a bath in her bathroom. [Alys very frequently mentions baths.]

Alys' new dress is a success, Evelyn's lace tucker being especially admired. Lady Henry Somerset caught cold at the Queen's funeral. "I know you are happy and I hope Evelyn will feel better tomorrow."

"Give her [Evelyn Whitehead] my best love and tell her to take care of her precious self."

"Evelyn's letter says thee is behaving like an angel, and I am sure thee is. Don't die of goodness before I get back!"

The envelope attached to this letter is addressed to BR in Alys's hand. The letter is addressed to an intimate; perhaps "Pond" was a nickname for Alys.

In the letter, which is hardly legible, Evelyn says BR is "just like a dropped angel". See record 123782 for Alys repeating the word "angel".

Alys is trying to recover her spirits. She thinks of their talk on the terrace Sunday afternoon, "and thee said a great many lovely things which will [be] the greatest comfort to me all this month."

"Neither of us is the other."

BR encloses the letter to The Times signed by BR (text is present), and tells Lord Russell of Liverpool that the present wording is more likely to secure attention than a more solemn statement.

Alys thanks BR for his Salisbury letter and Marlborough p.c. She is planning for a visit from Evelyn and her nurse.

What does BR think of the new budget? "I think it is wicked to tax the poor any more, even if they did make the war."

Alys refers to the time she saw Salisbury plain.

She can imagine BR enjoying "the garden" with Evelyn.

"Forwarding letters, however, is not thine strongest point, tho' I admit that it is not thine weakest either—answering letters is that."

BR has a headache again.

On her despair during this separation. She takes the blame for making BR unwell.

Alys had a talk with Ray: "I repeated all the things thee has said to me about excellence and first rateness, etc. etc., and she was much interested and begged me to go on talking."

Alys will see Dr. Boyle.

She sent BR 2 volumes of Mrs. Carlyle's letters: "She was almost as ill as Evelyn, and he made her feel that she was of no use to him." Etc.

Alys describes a quarrel between Frank Russell and Withers.

Dr. Boyle (a woman) guessed most things about Alys's depression.

Dr. Boyle is in medical partnership with another young woman. Boyle detests introspection.

If only Alys could see BR. "But realizing at last, at long last, that it is imperatively necessary for thee to be away from me, I have a real motive for bearing the separation." She refers to Mrs. Carlyle.

Alys has been told she needs a 3-month rest cure in the mountains.

"Thee must buy a new book list book".

Alys wants BR to tell her how many hours sleep he is getting every day. 6 1/2 in his p.c. of yesterday "was none too good".

"... thee is the only person with whom I can be myself."

Dr. Boyle wants Alys to exercise: walking and cycling do not suit Alys; "She says that I must get a horse, even if I cannot afford it." Swimming is good.

BR may read the enclosed (not present) letter from Beatrice Webb, "Tho' thee will not understand the household mysteries."

Alys is anxious about BR making "a dead set at thy book" when he is far from fit.

She refers to her "silly morbid thoughts about desertion".

"One more dead heave" and perhaps BR's book will get done.

She says she really is better.

Alys asks if BR has seen that Prussian women may now attend political meetings, but must sit apart.

She is on to the 5th volume of Walpole's letters; there are 4 more.

Alys wants BR to take the Halévys to lunch tomorrow in Soho and supper with Evelyn next Sunday.

When they are under the same roof soon, she will have to sleep alone. "Thee won't mind going into the last resort, will thee?"

BR is working very hard.