BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 26 FEB. 1920
BRACERS 19623. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
70, Overstrand Mansions,
Prince of Wales Road,
Battersea, S.W.1
26.2.20.

My Darling

Thank you very much for sending me your new letters2 — I think they are quite up to the level of the others — I have so far only just read them once — I will read them properly tomorrow, but today I am in a state, because I have to give a big lecture tonight at Kingsway Hall.3

I have made it up with Miss Black.4 You give me so little now-a-days that I must find consolation, or my life would not be bearable. I am as fond of her as I can be of any one while I care so deeply for you, so it seems foolish to throw away her love. It will probably lead to disaster, but so would any other course. Dora loves me, I love you, you love Casson, he loves his wife5... where is happiness to be found in all this chain? — Goodbye Beloved — My heart is yours, always and irrevocably.

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200616.

• 2

  sending me your new letters Presumably the series “Letters: Posted and Unposted” she was writing for the English Review. For information see BRACERS 19580, n.3.

• 3

  big lecture tonight at Kingsway Hall On “Freedom and the Guilds” (B&R C20.14; 12 (as “Socialism and Liberal Ideals”, Papers 15).

• 4

  Miss Black Dora Black (1894–1986). She and BR were married from 1921 until 1935. For further information, see BRACERS 19056, n.3.

• 5

  Dora loves me, I love you, you love Casson, he loves his wife This is the first spelled out mention in writing of this love. BR knew that something was troubling Colette in the autumn of 1919 but because of his jealousy she was reluctant to confide in him. In a letter of 17 November 1919 (BRACERS 19582) he had written to her that it was “dreadful” to see her “so unhappy”, “and not knowing what was the matter made it a thousand times worse.” On 27 January 1920 (BRACERS 19608) he wrote that he was glad that she had finally been able to tell him about her “great trouble”. Casson’s wife, Sybil Thorndike, had been having an affair with another actor, Stanley Logan. Casson, although still loving his wife, took up with Colette, who was crushed when she found out Casson’s true feelings.