BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [21 JAN. 1919]
BRACERS 19418. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
The Manor House
Garsington
Oxford1^, 2
Tuesday3

My Darling

What a terrific day you had on Sunday!4 I am very glad the show was a success. — I finished yesterday a review of that silly book on politics5 that came at Lynton6 — Plotinus7 I finished some days ago. I am busy all the time on my lectures, and feeling very fruitful.

Ottoline8 goes tomorrow for a week to Ld. Henry at Kirkby Lonsdale9 — Philip10 goes Friday morning. If you decide on Friday, I shall come up with him, and if you are busy I shall lunch at Gordon Square,11 or, failing that, with C.A.12 or Wrinch.13 — I am agreeable to any plan that suits you. But I imagine rehearsals keep you in town except Sunday.

I read The provok’d wife14 and found it fairly amusing.

Dearest I can’t tell you how much I am longing to be with you again. Being away from you feels so unnatural — I long to feel your love about me — When I am with you all my being is flooded with sunshine — All my love, Beloved — I do hope you are well now.

Your
B

Mildred Minturn15 has consumption and wants to see me before being taken to a sanatorium.a Please let me know what time Sat. you are engaged, so that I may arrange to see her then. Or Friday lunch if I come up Friday —

No, I don’t mind at all about Mrs. Eliot16 —

• 1

  [document] Document 200408.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 34 Russell Chambers | Bury Street | London W.C.1. Pmk. GARSINGTON | 21 JA | 19 |OXFORD

• 3

  [date] Colette wrote “21 (?) Jan. 1919” on the envelope. Tuesday fell on the 21st.

• 4

  a terrific day you had on Sunday Colette’s letter describing this day is not extant. It may refer to seeing The Provok’d Wife (see n.14 below). Or it may refer to this comment: “Lighting rehearsal of M.’s ‘Michael’ at 10 oc this morning. I’d then to label all the seats in the gallery (BRACERS 113166).

• 5

  silly book on politics Presumably F.J.C. Hearnshaw, Democracy at the Crossways, which BR reviewed in The Nation, 8 February 1919 (B&R C19.06; 1 in Papers 15).

• 6

  Lynton Colette along with BR and Clifford Allen had spent the Christmas season at the Cottage Hotel in Lynton, Devon.

• 7

  Plotinus “The Religion of Neo-Platonism”, The Nation (London), 24 (25 Jan. 1919): 491–2; a review of W.R. Inge, The Philosophy of Plotinus (B&R C19.03; 63 in Papers 9).

• 8

  Ottoline Lady Ottoline Morrell née Cavendish-Bentinck (1873–1938). For information on her, see BRACERS 19077, n.5.

• 9

  Ld. Henry at Kirkby Lonsdale Ottoline’s brother, Lord Henry Bentinck (1863–1938). His home in the Lake District was Underley Hall near Kirkby Londsdale.

• 10

  Philip Philip Morrell (1870–1943), a Liberal Member of Parliament and Ottoline’s husband.

• 11

  Gordon Square Frank Russell’s home at 57 Gordon Square.

• 12

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

• 13

  Wrinch Dorothy Maud Wrinch (1894–1976), mathematician and theoretical biologist.

• 14

  The provok’d wife A play (1697) by Sir John Vanbrugh which the Stage Society had revived as part of their series of Restoration plays. The Times ran a review on 15 January 1919, p. 11, of a performance at the King’s Hall the previous day. It is not known if Colette attended and if it was part of her “terrific day”.

• 15

  Mildred Minturn has consumption Mildred Minturn Scott (1875–1922). She was one of four sisters, belonging to a rich and distinguished New York family. She first met BR and his wife Alys at Bryn Mawr in 1896 and became friends with them after she moved to Europe. In 1906 she married Arthur Scott, a headmaster of a boys’ school in France, and the nephew of C.P. Scott of the Manchester Guardian. Her daughter, Leslie Allison wrote her biography Mabel Minturn (Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue: Shoreline, 1995). Mildred was successfully treated for tuberculosis at a Swiss sanatorium. Shortly thereafter, in 1920, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and she died on 14 May 1922, leaving three children.

• 16

  about Mrs. Eliot BR had written earlier to Colette that he had received a letter from Mrs. Eliot saying she dislike fading intimacies, and proposed to break off their friendship (BRACERS 19414). For information on her, see BRACERS 19062, n.5.

Textual Notes

• a

  sanatorium after deleted nursing home