[Grace Toll Hall, Scripps College, Claremont]
Your full and clear letter of January 7th reached me on Friday – or rather I found it when I went to the club for lunch, and as an American mail had come that morning I presume that it had only just arrived. I wanted to answer it at once, but I should not have been able to catch the mail, and experience teaches me that it is best to take a day or two before answering any very important letter.
I do not think that I can answer it very well even yet. First let me say that it is a wonderful and beautiful letter; I do not believe there can be many women who could write such a letter, or who could adopt such a really Christianly charitable and patient attitude. IHale, Emilyrelationship with TSE;w9TSE fears having misled over;c6 cannot but think, now, that I must have appeared to you, at least at times during the last year, in a very unfavourable light. But it was also a very painful letter to read, so that I have not yet been able to bring myself to re-read it. IHale, EmilyTSE's love for;x2TSE doubts decision to declare;c2 feel very much abased and humbled before you. I must face the fact, for the rest of my life, that I have never entered your life to bring you anything but pain; that the one person in the world I should most like to make happy – or to see made happy if I could not do it myself – would have been better off if she had never met me. And trying to do what small good one can, here and there, <to other people> is to me by comparison just emptying the sea with an eggcup.
ItHale, Emilyrelationship with TSE;w9EH feels misled over divorce;c7 was a very great shock to learn that I had given you a false impression a year ago. I do not see how it could have happened; but you must remember that I had thought up to that moment that the situation was perfectly clear to you – though I saw afterwards that it was very stupid of me – and perhaps it was the shock at that moment that made me express myself badly. IEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)the possibility of divorcing;f2in common and canon law;a5 know that the thought did enter my mind afresh, whether there was anything that could be done, but I saw quickly enough that even if there was some law by which the Church could grant a nullification, the civil law remained the same, and I should be dependent on the willingness to divorce me – andEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)separation from;f1which is yet unsigned;b9 I can’t even get her to sign an agreement of informal separation. But even so, I did not mean to delude you with what even at the moment was the falsest of hopes. But I feel that all this time, perhaps from the start, I have in a sense been acting under false pretenses [sic], and there is nothing I can do about it, nothing. IfHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3TSE offers to cease;e8 now you feel, or felt at any time, that you preferred or thought it best that I stopped writing, I would obey you at once.
As I say, I cannot perhaps answer your letter properly until I have brought myself to re-read it. It is a very lovely letter, and I feel very unworthy – such words may sound hackneyed and sanctimonious, but how else can I put it? You have done so much for me – much more even than I have been able to make you know – I used to think foolishly that I was giving something in return – and may have thought (unconsciously) still more foolishly that theHale, EmilyTSE's love for;x2a pain of sorts;b2 relationship was such that – especially considering the exquisite pain brought – I was almost entitled to the happiness and support – though I have been many times uneasy. IChristianityvirtues heavenly and capital;e1is endless;c4 hope I am learning more humility. I hope to love you more and more finely as my love is developed in greater admiration and appreciation of your superiority to myself.