[No surviving envelope]
This is just a short Thursday-morning note written in the hope of catching tonight’s boat so that you may get it on Saturday. I hope that the journey was quiet and uneventful and that you had a placid crossing. And that you will have a happy Easter in sunny weather, and that you found Jeannie well.
I have nothing much to record. ISt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Roadvestry goings-on;a2 shall have a busy weekend with services and accounts. A large number of people have sent Easter Offerings by post; and the ladies get very fidgety if they do not get acknowledgements at once. One particularly, whose name is Miss Meek, has written indignantly and frantically threatening to stop the cheque. Tonight I have to get up at 2.30 to keep the usual watch in the church from 3 to 4.30. AndMurder in the Cathedralfinal revisions for printer;b2 in the moments between I must finish retyping the play and writing in the extra lines so that it may be ready for the printer by Tuesday. OnHayward, John;c8 Sunday night John and I will try to cheer each other up over supper. AlidaMonro, Alida (née Klementaski)considers closing Poetry Bookshop;b5 Monro came to tea with me yesterday (at Russell Sq. I mean) to discuss a possible sale of some books to us, as she is contemplating winding up the Poetry Bookshop (confidential).1
I only want to say further what a Lovely evening I had. It is very exciting waiting for you at a station, and it is a great honour and privilege to be the only person to see you off – and I was – and in the sense in which I mean it – Very Happy all the evening. And I am looking forward with impatience to meeting you at the station on the 1st of May. The9 Grenville Place, LondonEH's sojourns at;b2 Vicar will be delighted to have you stay here as long and as often as you can – I will try to make it tidy, and will give Elizabeth instructions. My only fear is that you may be troubled by the railway: the best thing you can do is to keep the double windows of the bedroom shut tight and open a sitting-room window, leaving the door in between open. The Vicar also suggests that he can often have a spare bedroom upstairs which I could occupy, to save trouble of moving to the club; but on this occasion at least I shall stick to my original design.
Avec mes prières les plus tendres et mes souhaits pour une bonne saison de pâques2
1.See TSE to Alida Monro, 2 May 1935 (Letters 7, 606–8).
2.‘With my most tender prayers and my wishes for a good Easter season.’
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
3.AlidaMonro, Alida (née Klementaski) Klementaski (1892–1969) married Harold Monro on 27 Mar. 1920: see Alida Monro in Biographical Register.