[No surviving envelope]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
Faber & Faber Ltd
15 July 1935
Dearest Lady,

IMcPherrin, Jeanettesent stuffed plums;c8 have ordered a box for Jean – it came to about 15 shillings – but we ought to have ordered it while you were here; because it has to go by air mail, and will probably catch her. Three weeks on a freighter seems a serious matter. There were not figs or dates so I ordered some stuffed plums.

ITandys, theTSE's Hampton weekends with;a1 had a pleasant weekend, lying in the sun on the shore of the Thames. The young lady who interrupted us in the Precincts in the evening turned up in a punt and a red bathing dress, with a young man who had been playing Mephistopheles in ‘Dr. Faustus’. Theappearance (TSE's)of Maurice Evans;b3 licensee of ‘The Bell’ in Hampton1 says I put him in mind of someone, he couldn’t think for a long time who, its that young fellow in that film ‘White Cargo’.2 A good film it was too, because he’d been out in the East himself twenty year and he could say it was true to life. Well, I said, what was his story? Ah, he said, it was a sad story. A nice young fellow he was too, decent and all, and when he went out to the East to see all sorts of women tryin to get old of him, and finally he’s vamped by a native girl named Tooloolalonga that means Naughty Girl, and after that he takes to the gin and goes right down. Well, I said, that is a sad story, I suppose he ends on the beach. No, he said, he got sent ’ome in disgrace, that’s why it’s called ‘White Cargo’. But you’re the image of ’im, he said.

I am tired after a hot day, partly spent in legal affairs. I have recovered most of my French books, papers, and missing photographs.

It was lovely seeing you, even for a few moments, and9 Grenville Place, Londonsanctified by EH's presence;b4 it is good to have these rooms still further impressed with your personality. And I look forward ever so eagerly to next week.

Your
Tom

1.TSE had been visiting the Tandys at Hampton-on-Thames.

2.White Cargo is an ‘audible pictorial’ 1929 film – shot in London (originally as a silent movie, but with some dialogue added) and starring Maurice Evans – based on a hit play by Leon Gordon (1923) which was itself adapted from a novel entitled Hell’s Playground (1912) by Ida Vera Simonton. Set in a British rubber plantation in colonial Africa, the film – which is all too faithful to the play – shows how a new manager falls for the charms of a native ‘negress’ and marries her; but when after a few months she grows bored and seeks to poison her husband, the tables are successfully turned on her (she is made to drink her own poison), and the manager – the ‘white cargo’ – is despatched downriver to recover his health. The wicked Tondelayo was played by Gypsy Rhouma. In 1942 White Cargo was to be remade by Hollywood, starring Walter Pidgeon, and with Hedy Lamarr as Tondelayo – whose ethnicity was delicately shifted to half-Egyptian, half-‘low-caste Arab’.

9 Grenville Place, London, compared to Courtfield Road, TSE's rent for, described for EH, delights TSE, as refuge, and Burnt Norton, tea-party for Perkinses at, TSE's practical jokes at, in winter, as repository for TSE's books, EH's sojourns at, described by Virginia Woolf, sanctified by EH's presence, offered to Jeanie, adorned with photos of EH, evokes memories of childhood homecomings, likely to be sold,
appearance (TSE's), 'pudding-faced', TSE remembers wearing make-up, of a third-rate actor, likened to a crook, of a Chicago magnate, of a dissipated movie actor, of a debauched British statesman, hair-style, lobster-skinned, of a brutal Roman emperor, of a superior comic actor, of Maurice Evans, proud of his legs, wart on scalp, baldness, 'in spots', unlikely treatment for, 'as a bat', worsened by travel, due to worry, may require wig, in retreat, reasserts itself, confines TSE to single barber, eyes, dark, damaged by teeth-poisoning, figure, 'obese', altered by war, hernia, described, deferred operation for, recovery from, nose, the Eliot nostril, a Norman nose, too thin for pince-nez, teeth, 'nothing but chalk', EH severe on the state of, 'stumps', blamed for hair-loss, liable to be removed, blamed for rheumatism, false upper plate, plate reconstructed, state of, new false teeth, keystone tooth removed, remaining upper teeth removed, new plate,
McPherrin, Jeanette, first mentioned, mentions 'shriners', TSE approves of, to accompany EH to Paris, and her first London visit, thanks TSE for Caetani introduction, TSE offers to rearrange studies at Cambridge, under I. A. Richards, encouraged to join EH in Rome, causes EH difficulty, joins EH in Florence, with EH in Rome, offered rare editions of Commerce, given introduction to the Maritains, whom she visits, shares TSE's Perkins concerns, sent stuffed plums, not to be mentioned at Campden, compared favourably to Margaret Thorp, disliked by Edith Perkins, EH job-seeking for, TSE confides EH's breakdown to, accompanied TSE and EH to Burford, taken to the Elsmiths, still persona non grata with the Perkinses, promised and receives East Coker, a Christian Scientist, recalls TSE's final day with Henry, hosts EH at Wellesley, now Lecturer in French at Wellesley, missed by EH, asks TSE to read at Wellesley,

2.JeanetteMcPherrin, Jeanette McPherrin (1911–92), postgraduate student at Scripps College; friend of EH: see Biographical Register.

Tandys, the, TSE's Hampton weekends with, TSE's weekend in Newhaven with, as family, welcome baby daughter, compared to the Morleys, move to new Hampton home, host TSE for Guy Fawkes night, give TSE pipes for Christmas, versus the de la Mares, take large Dorset cottage, host TSE in Dorset, their situation in Dorset, accompanied to Alice in Wonderland,