BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [2 MAR. 1920]
BRACERS 19630. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

Tuesday.1^, 2^,3

My Darling

It was lovely to get your telegram4 saying you would dine here Thursday — please ring me up when you arrive or as soon as you can — I don’t know if your telegram was an answer to my letter accusing you of politeness5 — but whether or not, I am glad I shall see something of you — Saturday C.A.6 and I walked in places7 where you and I had been together in happier days — I got so sad that I couldn’t talk, and at last C.A. complained that I was “very dull”. The radiant shimmering joy that I have known with you is a thing I shall never know again, but I shall bless you always because through you I have known it. All my heart, Beloved.

B.

I have been reading over again your last batch of Letters.8 they are wonderfully good — there are a few small criticisms I will tell you Thursday — I like very much the first (No. 34) — also No. 37, which is really most admirable. The beginning of 39 is splendid — and the end is absolutely right.

Dear Heart, you know how to suffer nobly — you know the alchemy that turns pain9 to wisdom and beauty — your courage in pain is very fine — O God how I love you —

• 1

  [document] Document 200623.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | W.C.1. Pmk: BATTERSEA S.W.11| 3.45 PM | 2 MAR 20.  Written in the top left corner by BR: “Not to be forwarded”.

• 3

  [date] The date is taken from the envelope’s postmark.

• 4

  your telegram Sent 2 March 1920 from Ulverston, Westmorland and Cumbria, (BRACERS 98482).

• 5

  my letter accusing you of politeness BR’s letter of 1 March 1920 (BRACERS 19626).

• 6

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

• 7

  walked in places At and around Leith Hill, Surrey.

• 8

  your last batch of letters This batch of letters appears to be their own letters project which BR first suggested on 22 November 1919 (BRACERS 19584, n.6). It is not clear when she began to work on them. Number 34 is document .052378 (BRACERS 99840), an altered version of document 200292 (BRACERS 19303), April 1918, written by BR. Number 37 is document .052383 (BRACERS 99845), 4 June 1918, written by Colette. No original handwritten version of this letter is known. Number 39 is document .052386 (BRACERS 99849), written in French and as if it were copied from a book, but really is from BR. It is a condensed version of document 200302 (BRACERS 19309), undated but from early in BR’s imprisonment at Brixton in 1918. It seems unlikely that this batch of letters concerns her “Letters Posted and Unposted” that she published in the English Review. For information on them, see BRACERS 19580, n.3.

• 9

  alchemy that turns pain BR wrote much on this transformation in “The Pilgrimage of Life” (1902–03; 2 in Papers 12).