BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 30 DEC. 1931
BRACERS 19798. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Telegraph House
Harting, Petersfield.1
Dec. 30, 1931.

Dearest Colette

Your letter2 shows that there has been some misunderstanding. I thought I had asked you to let me know when we could see each other, and that you had not done so. I wondered about you, but concluded that for some reason you did not wish to see me. I have been out of England, except for a day or two, since the beginning of July.3

My memories of you are the most important memories I have. But when we were together in Cornwall4 I found that present reality could not be as vivid as the past, so that I felt as if whatever was happening was being presided over by a ghost. Therefore it seemed to me that any attempt at more than friendship would impair memories that I value too much to wish them to become blurred. I did not know beforehand that I should feel this. Can you understand?

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200804.

• 2

  Your letter This is dated only December 1931 (BRACERS 113238). Colette despairs in it that they have not seen each other since the time they spent in Cornwall together in the summer of 1930. She concludes that he does not want her as part of his life. She did not respond to this reply and did not contact him again (as far as is known) until 16 September 1935 when she wrote to him asking him to sign a joint-signatory letter on a mental hospitals issue (BRACERS 98486). BR did sign the letter, “Mental Disorders” (B&R F35.05; App. IX, Papers 21).

• 3

  out of England, except for a day or two, since the beginning of July Although he did spend part of the summer in France, BR was back in England for several weeks until he left for a lecture tour in America in October.

• 4

  when we were together in Cornwall In the summer of 1930. See BR’s letter of 3 August 1930 (BRACERS 19784) after Colette’s departure.