[No surviving envelope]
I am extremely vexed and depressed by the fact that I have had to arrange a business meeting for tea time on Tuesday – a difficult meeting which involved finding a time possible for an author, another director and myself; and this was the only time in the near future which was possible for all three. So to my disappointment I shall not be able to meet you at Paddington, but I will come to King’s Cross and see you off. I particularly wanted to get you across from one station to the other; and I am very grieved that I cannot.
The room at Basil Street is reserved for you for the 16th. I suggest that I shall come there at about 10 and wait until you are ready: that will give you time for breakfast and a bath and a little rest. After that I have no address for you until the 1st September.1
IEnglandBath, Somerset;c8EH visits;a2 am glad that you are feeling somewhat better, and I hope that Aberdeen and Bath will do more than Campden can; but I fear that I shall not see you leave as restored and prepared for the winter as I should like to see.2 AndKorean War;a2 I fear it will be a hard winter, with military affairs disturbing all others and making life more difficult. The general opinion is that there might be another satellite war before the end of the year, but that no general catastrophe [sic]. But I fear we are all very much in the dark.
1.TSE to Meg Nason, 23 Aug. 1950: ‘I am expecting Emily back on the following day, for the weekend, before she flies back on Monday, the 4th. It is a pity you will miss her before she goes.’
2.Abbot Academy Bulletin 18: 1 (Oct. 1950), 4: ‘Miss Hearsey and Miss Hale spent the summer in England.’ The innocent notice may have given the impression to some readers that Miss Hearsey and Miss Hale had travelled together: they did not.