BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [3 DEC. 1917]
BRACERS 19253. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

Monday evg.1^, 2^, 3

My dearest Darling

A thousand thanks for your dear little letter — it was a great joy.

C.A.4 is released on grounds of health. C.E.M.5 spent Sat. afternoon and evening and Sunday morning telephoning to me to go down to Winchester with her to welcome him — at last she went off with Salter6 (apparently), and is taking him to a nursing-home at Brighton kept by Mrs Salter’s sister.  This is absolutely all that I know, and some of this is uncertain. CEM is furious with me and has not communicated. I was rather upset when I found I had missed such a moment. I don’t know whether he is really desperately ill or not. Mrs Salter7 thinks not, repeating Salter’s view — but that is not based on knowledge.

I can’t find out the truth about the paragraph on liberation of C.O’s8 that we saw yesterday. It appeared today in several papers. I wish I knew the truth. It seems to be a ballon d’essai.

I went to my flat9 and fetched several books which I will bring to the Studio.10 Gradually I will bring more. Among others I brought Shaw’s Love among the artists.11

I count on dinner tomorrow — unless something unforeseen occurs. Shall I call at 7? Or shall we meet at the Isola Bella12 at 7?  Better the latter. I may not have time to call. I shall be in till 11 tomorrow morning if you want to phone.

My Beloved, I do absolutely know that you love me. Terror in the night is merely a madness, when things I felt a while back come again — it leaves no trace by day.

I love reading with you — and talking about things that matter in the world. I want our love to be always rooted in those things — that wants time and opportunity — If you feel so disposed, we could go to the Studio a little while after dinner tomorrow and read more poetry — and lapse into serious talk perhaps.

Dear Love, my love for you is rooted very deep — if it were not, it would not have survived undamaged, as it has. It holds all that goes deepest in me — In your arms, at moments, I find peace — never anywhere else — Goodnight, my lovely Dear —

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200241.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | W.C.1. The envelope has no postage.

• 3

  [date] Colette wrote “3 Dec. 1917.” on the letter.

• 4

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

• 5

  C.E.M. Catherine Marshall (1880–1961). For further information on her, see BRACERS 19043, n.5.

• 6

  Salter Dr. Alfred Salter (1873–1945), a Quaker physician and one of the leaders of the No-Conscription Fellowship.

• 7

  Mrs Salter Ada Salter, née Brown (1866–1942), social reformer, environmentalist, pacifist and Quaker. She was the first woman mayor of London. She had several sisters; the one who kept a nursing-home in Brighton has not been identified.

• 8

  paragraph on liberation of C.O’sThe Tribunal, no. 86 (6 Dec. 1917), p. 4, reprinted this paragraph from the Daily Express of 3 December 1917 about a decision under consideration by the Home and War Offices about releasing Conscientious Objectors who had served two years in prison as well as those at work centres who had done their tasks quietly and well.

• 9

  my flat 34 Russell Chambers, Bury Street (later renamed Bury Place), London WC1. BR had rented the flat to Helen Dudley in 1916; he returned to live in the flat in January and again in June and early July 1917 when Helen Dudley was away . During the times his flat was occupied by Dudley BR lived at his brother’s home at 57 Gordon Square when BR was in London.

• 10

  the Studio The name given to the place that BR and Colette had rented in Soho. For information on it, see BRACERS 19240, n.9.

• 11

  Shaw’s Love among the artists By George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1881. This novel is not in Russell’s library at McMaster.

• 12

  Isola Bella Possibly the Italian restaurant of that name at 15 Frith Street in Soho. It was open in 1939 owned by Pierino Micotti.