BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [4 MAY 1917]
BRACERS 19162. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<London>
Friday night1^, 2

My Beloved

Your dear letter3 was here just now when I got in. I loved it — I do hope your fortnight’s engagement4 will come off.

The matter of the debentures is fixed in my will5 and cannot be altered.

I should like to know what you felt about the possibility of other careers than the stage.

It seems to me 1000 years since I saw you last — I shall go away for a fortnight’s holiday on May 21.6 I wish some part of it could be with you — I am tired, tired — fading away. I realize that I had lived on you more than I knew. Much is happening in the world to cheer one — Austria and Russia want peace — I believe we shall have peace this year — Asquith told Hirst7 it would be in June — but I find that hard to believe, tho’ some say Ll.G.8 is gone abroad to start negotiations. I see there are cheering things, but I am too weary to be cheered — the daily slaughter in France is so horrible.  Goodnight my dear one.

B.

Would you like to come Sunday afternoon to Finsbury Park, May Day Peace Meeting9 in the open air — probably exciting. If so I will call for you at 3.

• 1

  [document] Document 200138.

• 2

  [date] Colette wrote “4 May 1917” on the letter.

• 3

  Your dear letter Colette’s letter of 4 May 1917 (BRACERS 19162).

• 4

  fortnight’s engagement There was a possibility of a role in a play in Manchester.

• 5

  debentures is fixed in my will In his letter of c.2 May 1917 (BRACERS 19160), BR thought he would be able to sell some debentures at Christmas and thus ease her money worries. On the same day Colette had written “you are on no account to sell your debentures for me” (BRACERS 113017).

• 6

  go away for a fortnight’s holiday on May 21 This did not happen. BR was in London and Garsington during this time. In her letter of 22 June 1917, Colette notes that “It is nearly a month that your holiday has been held up” (BRACERS 113034).

• 7

  Asquith told Hirst Herbert Henry Asquith (1852–1928), Prime Minister, 1908–1916, who stayed on in parliament as leader of the Liberal Party after Lloyd George took over. Francis Wrigley Hirst (1873–1953) was the editor of TheEconomist. Opposed to the war, he was forced to resign in 1916. He established his own paper, Common Sense, which favoured a negotiated peace.

• 8

  Ll.G. David Lloyd George (1863–1945). He served as Prime Minister from 1916 to 1922.

• 9

  Finsbury Park, May Day Peace Meeting His next letter reveals that he went walking on Sunday 6 May 1917 (BRACERS 19163).