BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 23 FEB. 1919
BRACERS 19437. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<Battersea>
23.2.191^, 2

My dearest Love

Your flowers came safely yesterday and gave C.A.3 the greatest joy — he asked me to thank you as he is not well enough to write yet — There were so many that some snow-drops have overflowed into my room, which is very nice for me. Two express letters also came — one for each — thank you, my Darling —

C.A. goes on as well as can be expected. He slept more than usual last night. I see nothing of him hardly, as I don’t care to enter the competition with furious females.4 There is a terrible lot of psychology and discomfort in the flat5 at present. I think C.E.M.6 intends that he shall marry the girl.7 He does absolutely everything C.E.M. wants him to do, so he is doomed; no doubt a week after marriage he will hate the girl.

Today I am lunching with Eve,8 unless she fails to turn up.

C.A. will go to Coldharbour as soon as he is well enough. If that is likely to be long, I shall go back to Garsington9 till then, as life here at present is unendurable for anybody of the male sex. I have succeeded in working, but with the greatest difficulty. Tomorrow I dine with Amber Reeves and her husband,10 next night with Captain Bennett.11

My work prospers — every time I sit down to it, it goes better than I expect. Apart from work, I am feeling life a little dreary. But that is chiefly due to wet weather, bad meals, and indigestion. I hope the day will come when you and I will be really happy together again. All love, my Darling. I love you, and I think you are most wonderfully kind and good — but I long for love —

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200427.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | Royal Albion Hotel | Brighton. Pmk: LONDON | 6 15 PM | FE | 19 | 193

• 3

  C.A. (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.4.

• 4

  furious females Various women, including Gladys Rinder and Catherine Marshall, from the No-Conscription Fellowship.

• 5

  in the flat Clifford Allen’s flat, 70 Overstrand Mansions, Prince of Wales Road, Battersea. BR shared this flat with Allen beginning in February 1919 on and off until he left for China in the autumn of 1920.

• 6

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

• 7

  girl Unidentified. Allen did not marry until 17 December 1921. His wife was Marjory Gill, a landscape architect.

• 8

  Eve Evelyn Walsh Hall, film and stage actress. For more information on her, see BRACERS 19394, n.8.

• 9

  Garsington Garsington Manor, near Oxford, the county home of Lady Ottoline and Philip Morrell.

• 10

  Amber Reeves and her husband Amber Reeves (1887–1981), writer and Fabian, was pregnant with H.G. Wells’ child when she married (George) Rivers Blanco White (1883–1966), lawyer and Fabian in 1909. BR reviewed her book on ethics in 1949 (B&R C49.13; 51 in Papers 11).

• 11

  Captain Bennett Capt. E.N. Bennett was a member of the Union of Democratic Control; he wrote BR in 1918, wishing him success in his court case appeal.