BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 4 JULY 1919
BRACERS 19497. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

Lulworth1^, 2
July 4. 1919

My dearest Darling

Thank you for all your dear kindnesses — soap, and lovely bath-crystals — and the Clutton-Brock3 has duly come — and your dear letters4 — I couldn’t answer yesterday’s letter as I could only add a line in the P.O. Yes, I often think of keeping Bury Str.5 for us to meet in. My only difficulty is money — it means a loss of £150 a year, which is rather a lot. Let us consider it. — Thank you for telling me about Miles.6 I hope it is not very serious. I do want answers to the following questions, as soon as possible, by wire please tomorrow when you reach Cox Green:7

(1) Can we be together at Bury Street Thursday night and Friday night? If so I will come up Thursday. If not, can we at least manage Friday night?

(2) Can you come to Ashford8 Sat. 12th? The rooms there are engaged, and if you can’t come you had better telegraph to Mrs Woodhouse9 to say they are not wanted, as it may prevent my having to pay for them.

I know you can’t tell yet whether you can come here after Ashford, but surely you can make up your mind whether you can come to Ashford, and I do want to know. Telegraph: “Bury Street Thursday [or Friday as case may be] Ashford Saturday” — or telegraph one or both impossible. Forgive this insistence, but not knowing is inconvenient.

This place is very beautiful — there are numbers of bits of fine coast that you and I had not discovered — I am constantly reminded of our time here last autumn — it was a time full of poetry and beauty, in spite of not being very happy. My dear one I long to be with you — I do want you — we must be together now, or the new feeling that has come will waste itself and old troubles will begin again. I can stay in town a week if you can’t come to Ashford, provided we can be really together at my flat. I simply must be with you, Beloved.

Have you read Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley (about Emily) and Villette (about her own love-story)? If not, do buy them as a present from me — You ought to read both. A book I thought very delightful is Melchior de Vogüé’s Trois Drames de l’historie Russe10 which I could get for you from the London Library. I won’t make a list of books,11 but will suggest new books when you have read the previous ones.

Goodbye Beloved — I can’t tell you how I long to be with you. Do pleasea come to Ashford if you possibly can. We must have a time to make new things solid — probably our whole future depends upon it — All my love, my lovely Darling, my heart’s Joy —

B —

• 1

  [document] Document 200485.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | c/o Priscilla Countess Annesley | Cox Green | Maidenhead | Berks. Pmk: WEST LULWORTH | 3 JY | 19

• 3

  the Clutton-Brock His book What Isthe Kingdom of Heaven? which BR had reviewed for The Athenaeum (B&R C19.19; 55 in Papers 9). The book is first mentioned in BR’s letter of 1 July (BRACERS 19494).

• 4

  your dear letters Not extant.

• 5

  Bury Str. BR’s flat, 34 Russell Chambers. Colette had been living there — BR lived elsewhere — and she had now returned to her previous flat.

• 6

  Miles Miles Malleson (1888–1969), Colette’s husband. It is not known what his medical difficulty was at this time. For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.4.

• 7

  Cox Green The country home of Colette’s mother was located in Cox Green, near Maidenhead, Berks.

• 8

  Ashford Colette and BR vacationed there. For information, see BRACERS 19217, n.4.

• 9

  Mrs Woodhouse Mrs. Agnes Woodhouse, the owner of the house, The Avenue, where Colette and BR vacationed.

• 10

  Melchior de Vogüé’s Trois Drames de l’historie Russe [Three Dramas of Russian History]. (Paris: A. Colin, 1911). Eugène Marie Melchior, Vicomte de Vogüé (1848–1910) covers the period 1689–1800. The book is in Russell’s Library (RUSS LIB 1876).

• 11

  list of books Colette had asked BR for reading suggestions for an unknown purpose.

Textual Notes

• a

  please Underlined four times.