[Grace Toll Hall, Scripps College, Claremont]
This is a very hurried line to thank you for yours of the 28th August – I Took the Liberty of cabling yesterday so that you should not waste a letter on the Queens Hotel in Montreal – to go wandering about homeless – to be opened and ignominiously returned if you put your address on it. I hope, however, that a letter may be delivered to the boat. My reason for not stopping overnight is merely economy; I should have been happy to spend a night merely to get a letter from you at the hotel: but perhaps there may be one at Eliot House or at 31 Madison Street?
GratefulHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2EH sends TSE pomme purée;a3 thanks for the pomme purée, but I am not altogether happy about the effect of the photograph – I am not pleased with ‘change of personality’; and if you are ‘not sure that’ you ‘know this’ etc. are you not suggesting that I ought to doubt whether I know you? Iappearance (TSE's)of a third-rate actor;a3 onceappearance (TSE's)likened to a crook;a4 heard that I was said to look like a third rate actor (which I suppose I was) but never that I might be a crook: whatEnglish Church Unionpunchline to self-directed quip;a5 would the English Church Union say about that? However, I confess that I have no objection to the vibratory effect upon your spinal ganglia (if that is the right word).
NowThorps, thetake offence where none intended;c2 about the Thorps. I am penitent if I have given them the impression of neglect or rudeness. But the only invitation which I can remember is one from Willard asking me to lunch one day in the vicinity of the Museum with him and Margaret. AsEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)TSE declines invitations excluding;b1 no mention was made of V. I declined – I trust politely – I did not mention it to her, of course; and then we did not have the opportunity to invite them for some time – and I don’t remember that they asked us on any occasion; and the next we heard they were said to be in Brittany. Now, of course, in my peculiar situation, I am probably more scrupulous about V.’s inclusion in invitations than ordinary people in ordinary conditions need be; but the only way I can manage my life here is on terms of the most formal social correctness. I leave it to your discretion what or how much to say to Margaret Thorp; I shd. be very sorry if she and her husband felt that they had any cause for offence. We were genuinely sorry to see no more of them. Anyway, my previous mention of them should testify to my innocence, or at least ignorance.
Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1933 westward tour to Scripps;a8TSE's itinerary;a4 have done nothing further about Western dates. AllChristianitythe Church Year;d8church trumps family during;a5 my plans for Christmas are subject to revision, except that during the holidays I must get to St. Louis for a few days. IChristianityliturgy;b9at Christmas;a6 have no sentimental feeling about being with my relatives for Christmas; it is much more important to me to have a proper church at hand – for the Midnight Mass etc. and Boxing Day (otherwise St. Stephen Protomartyr). The important matter is [to] be able to see you somewhere for a few days in peace and quiet.
BonamyDobrée, Bonamyand Flint take TSE for farewell lunch;a6 is downstairs waiting for me, andFlint, Frank Stuart ('F. S.')and Dobrée give TSE farewell lunch;a6 we go to the Club where Frank Flint will be waiting, for a farewell lunch. There are so many farewells that it consumes a good deal of valuable time. Mince alors.1 I shall write once next week before I sail. This last week is the most worrying of all.
1.‘Bother!’
3.Bonamy DobréeDobrée, Bonamy (1891–1974), scholar and editor: see Biographical Register.
2.F. S. FlintFlint, Frank Stuart ('F. S.') (1885–1960), English poet and translator: see Biographical Register.