[No surviving envelope]
Wind light variable inland,
fresh S.W. on South Coast:
dull, occasional rain or drizzle, brighter intervals locally later; somewhat milder & rather close.
First, to be Practical. This9 Grenville Place, LondonEH's sojourns at;b2 Bower will be swept and ready for you on Tuesday morning, small parcel for you in front of alarum clock; and I shall present myself at your Green Tea Room at one o’clock sharp, in the hope of your arriving to lunch with me (suggested for convenience, cheapness and sentimental association rather than for cuisine). WhetherThorps, the;c8 youtravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4Thorp theatre outing;e6 doHale, Emilyand TSE theatre-going with Thorps;g5 or do not permit me to accompany you to a theatre afterwards, I shall expect to call for you at SouKen in time to escort you to dinner, the place of which I shall decide after I have found out from the Thorps what theatre we are going to. I take it that they are getting the seats, and I am providing the dinner. And if you do not take the morning train back on Wednesday, you have the refusal of my company at lunch on that day (cutting my committee until 3.00). Andtravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4TSE's 6–8 September Campden weekend;e7 I shall have after that the pleasure of looking forward to your company in Campden at the weekend.
Well you are a queer dear child in many ways (thank you for looking forward to the concluding instalment of my letter: anxious to get it over with!) Your mind does work in complicated ways on matters which seem to me simple enough! YouHale, Emilyfeels inferior to Margaret Thorp;g4 realise, you say, that your presence does mean something to me – but clouded as you were, fuddled as you was, by a silly inferiority complex. To be sure, the group at Cumnor must have been a great deal more brilliant than any I have ever penetrated, if you would have been the least among it to amuse or provide me company! Fie, how serious we are about nothing. Through pleasures & palaces though I have never roamed etc.1 I have never met anything that could be called a brilliant and amusing group of people. All groups are mediocre. I could not understand why you said that I should not have enjoyed your company at Cumnor, when I have enjoyed it everywhere else, andThorp, Margaret (née Farrand)TSE on EH's feeling of inferiority to;b3 I was incensed by your taking such a humble attitude before Margaret’s excessive intellectuality. She is of course better educated than you, and she has a plodding industrious academic mind; and she has a great deal more assurance; but I cannot see that she has a better mind than you have, and she has a good deal less interesting spirit. I may have spoken more violently about Willard than I should have done, under such exacerbation, because he is a pleasant companion enough: but he still does not seem to me very vivid. You are so conscientious about people, that it leads almost to a kind of hypocrisy: you are sometimes ashamed of your genuine feelings, and are harassed by what you think you ought to feel. I do not deny M.’s sterling qualities: but she is terribly cramped into a narrow way of living.
ButChristianityvirtues heavenly and capital;e1possessed by EH to a fault;c9 I am concerned about your feelings of inferiority. For one thing, that feeling may shut one off from the people who love one best. GeoffreyFaber, Geoffreysocial insecurities;d8 (Faber) has a feeling of inferiority because he can’t talk French, and because he fancies that there is such a thing as a Brilliant Society (representedMorrell, Lady Ottolineintimidates GCF;f3 for him by Ottoline, of whom he is terrified) in which he would feel a fool. HeMorley, Frank Vigoroverawes GCF;e4 has a kind of uneasy awe of Morley and me, because he thinks we are quick-witted, and that he isn’t, and that is an unnecessary barrier. You must get over the notion that there is anything virtuous in feeling inferior: one shouldn’t feel inferior, superior or equal to anybody. Any wrong attitude you have towards ‘my friends’ will affect wrongly your attitude towards me. You have such a wonderful sense of humour, and yet you are always restraining it; and you have a wonderful sensitive intelligence about people, and you are always checking it.
And why end sententiously and solemnly? ‘How small these things are related to the world at large.’ But the world at large is made up of Minute Particulars like this, and one need not apologise for them. ‘How petty in the world of the spirit’ … but have you a clear idea of the world of the spirit, apart from these things? As for how different you are from a year ago – we can’t judge of that yet. This is not the concluding instalment.
1.‘Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, / Be it ever so humble there’s no place like home!’ (lyrics by John Howard Payne; melody by Sir Henry Bishop, 1823).
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.
16.MargaretThorp, Margaret (née Farrand) Farrand (1891–1970), author and journalist – see Margaret Thorp in Biographical Register.