ILloyds BankTSE's first boss at;a1 find about twenty minutes to spare after lunch. ThatCrofton, Harry C.in thumbnail;a4 is because I had to lunch with Harry Crofton at the St. James’s Club at 12: he is one of the managers of Lloyds Bank, and was my first boss when I took a small job there in 1917, and has always been a friend to me – an Etonian who was meant for the diplomatic service, but was forced by ill health to take to banking instead: he is very rushed and only has from 12 to 1:30 to lunch. That I thoroughly enjoyed: he is a very simple, wellbred fellow, with no pretensions, whom I always find refreshing, and whose opinions on the rulers of finance are always unorthodox and amusing. So I came back here afterwards: there is a committee here this afternoon which I refuse to attend, as it was changed without warning from yesterday to to-day, and Edith is coming to tea, and Morley won’t be here either, andFaber, Geoffrey;b3 I spent part of yesterday afternoon with Faber dissuading him from two schemes which are to be discussed, but I arranged that no decision should be given before Monday when all will be present. YesterdayHarris, Charles Reginald Schiller;a1 lunched with Reggie Harris, who runs the Nineteenth Century and is one of the editors of The Times, a Fellow of All Souls2 – not a very remunerative meeting, he seems to me a quick clever and rather shallow man, the sort which is so brilliant at passing examinations, but possibly a desirable acquaintance – to pass deserving young men on to etc. This is merely to thank you for your sweet letter of the 21st which arrived to-day – the first letter this week. IChristianitythe Church Year;d8TSE rebuked for bah-humbugging;a4 accept contritely your remarks about my Christmas spirit; but possibly there is a slight misunderstanding. I was not expressing the ordinary fatigue with the fuss of Christmas, the trying to think of presents for people richer than oneself etc. but the special irritation of the paganism of our Christmas to one who would like the quiet to meditate on it and observe it serenely and joyfully as a Christian feast. IChristianitythe Church Year;d8Easter, better observed than Christmas;c4 meant to compare it with Easter, which one can observe as one would. Of course I find ‘more in Christmas than that’; I was only grumbling, perhaps pettishly, at all the obstacles that well meaning people put in the way, people who never seem to reflect for a minute on what Christmas really means.
IHinkleys, thenot in TSE's confidence as to EH;b5 feel as you do about taking the Hinkleys into my confidence – not that I should take anyone into my confidence without your previous permission and approval: and indeed I do not feel sure of them enough to treat them with real confidences. TheyHinkleys, theat odds with TSE's view of marriage;b6 who can notHinkley, Barbara (TSE's first cousin)Hinkleys celebrate her second marriage;a3 only condone but approve and applaud Barbara’s second marriage, and so soon after the collapse of the most fundamental lifelong relationship with another man: such people must have a very different view of life from mine – certainly not either the Christian or the ‘tragic’ view of life: and I always suspect that the people whose views I disapprove of are the least likely to understand mine. ISheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister)TSE's most likely family confidant;a3 would far sooner trust my sister Ada (much the most brilliant and understanding of the family) orEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)as potential confidant;a4 my brother Henry, orSmith, Charlotte Eliot (TSE's sister, née Eliot)would have been in TSE's confidence;a4 my dead sister Charlotte; thoughEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)not a suitable confidant;a5 notEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister)not a suitable confidant;a2 either of my spinster sisters. So I think the best thing for the present is just to go on in the same way; and surely, people in general are much more inclined to see things sensibly as they really are, after they have endured for a long time, than if confronted with them when relatively new, before a situation has become a mode of life … I was amused to hear of their dragging in Roger Wolcott in connexion with my appointment: I imagine him as a pompous ass, though I am ready to revise that prejudice.
IHale, EmilyTSE's love for;x2unconfided to friends;b3 should certainly find it easier, if I had friends to whom I could talk freely about you, and no doubt find it the same. But for the present, we must do without that. I do feel a great need to be able to talk of you, and to express everything I feel, to some wise and understanding person; but that cannot be yet.
And so you are now plunged into another play: are you going to put yellow on your face and slant your eyes and get up as a Chinese Lady.3 Well well. And now I am wishing you once more the New Year wish on New Year’s Day itself.
1.Misdated ‘1931’ by TSE.
2.CharlesHarris, Charles Reginald Schiller Reginald Schiller Harris (1896–1979), journalist, author, diplomat; editor of The Nineteenth Century and After, 1930–5.
3.EH was appearing in the play called The Yellow Jacket: A Chinese Play Done in a Chinese Manner (1912), by George C. Hazleton and J. Harry Benrimo: a romantic drama.
1.HarryCrofton, Harry C. C. Crofton (d. 1938), was the senior of the four managers of the Colonial and Foreign Department. HisCrofton, Harry C.TSE remembered by his son;a2n son John told the Archivist of Lloyds Bank, 1 Aug. 1980: ‘I have memories of my father inviting T. S. for several week-ends to our home. My mother … used to speak of him and of how much they enjoyed his visits. (If I may add that in those days it was a little unusual for the Chief Foreign Manager to invite “a clerk” for week-ends!!!) I do know that the object of the visits from my father’s side, was to persuade T. S. to give up the Bank and devote himself to his obvious real calling.’
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
6.MargaretEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister) Dawes Eliot (1871–1956), TSE's second-oldest sister sister, resident in Cambridge, Mass. In an undated letter (1952) to his Harvard friend Leon M. Little, TSE wrote: ‘Margaret is 83, deaf, eccentric, recluse (I don’t think she has bought any new clothes since 1900).’
1.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: see Biographical Register.
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
2.CharlesHarris, Charles Reginald Schiller Reginald Schiller Harris (1896–1979), journalist, author, diplomat; editor of The Nineteenth Century and After, 1930–5.
6.BarbaraHinkley, Barbara (TSE's first cousin) Hinkley (1889–1958) was married in July 1928 to Roger Wolcott (1877–1965), an attorney; they lived at 125 Beacon Hill, Boston, and at 1733 Canton Avenue, Milton, Mass.
2.AdaSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister) Eliot Sheffield (1869–1943), eldest of the seven Eliot children; author of The Social Case History: Its Construction and Content (1920) and Social Insight in Case Situations (1937): see Biographical Register.