[No surviving envelope]
At Last I [am] feeling quite well enough to sit up and type in bed, for to have sent you a scribble in pencil would have looked alarming, and there was [no] point in writing before, to judge from the shipping list, since having missed the mail of last Thursday there seemed to be nothing until the Europa (which brought your letter of the 30th, the last I have had) sails tomorrow. I9 Grenville Place, Londonin winter;a9 haven’t been ill, really, and I shouldn’t be in bed now except that the weather is so arctic, bed is the only warm place in the house. Last Wednesday I woke up feeling stiff and queer, but went through the engagements of the day well enough – diningHayward, John;e2 atBell, Clivedines with JDH, Garnett and TSE;a9 theGarnett, Daviddines with Bell, JDH and TSE;a3 end with John, and Clive Bell and David Garnett – but when I got up on Thursday I was full of shakes and shivers. So as I had a full and partly important programme for the next two days I wrestled with the temptation to carry on, and decided that my duty to you required me to stay in bed and send for the doctor. He told me I had a touch of bronchial influenza; and I have been completely obedient and cautious, and cancelled every engagement to the end of this week. The first three days I passed easily in sleep, especially as my coughing kept me awake a good part of the night. I have been rewarded for my dutifulness by having my chest quite clear up; and as I say, if the weather were warm I should probably be out by now, but we are having the coldest spell for several years, I understand, so I am being very cautious. OfOxford and Cambridge Clubkeeps TSE warm and fed;b7 course, once I am able to get out as far as my club I shall pick up rapidly, because the food is poor here and the rooms hard to heat. And I have had a good rest, and thankful not to have had to talk to anyone from one end of the day to the other. And I want to be praised for being so prudent and docile, as it has been on your account.
IKrausses, the;a1 haveSt. Catherine's School, Richmond, Va.whose terms EH rejects;a2 no doubt that the Krauss’s were right about the undesirability of your taking so ill-paid a job. IHale, Emilyas teacher;w1possibly, temporarily, at St. Catherine's, Va.;b8 did not like the idea of you giving your services (abilities and experiences) away for practically nothing, either. At the same time I liked the idea of your getting into a mild climate for the rest of this severe winter, and also of your getting away from Boston. NowHale, Emilypossible career-move into politics;h8 about the political job, that is exciting – and almost impossible for me at this distance and in ignorance of the conditions, to have any opinion about. The pay is good, but that makes one all the more suspicious that the work may be so heavy as to tax your strength to excess, especially if you take it ambitiously. You must look into all that carefully, of course. I am assuming that the principles and aims of the ‘non-political party’ are to your satisfaction: these matters of local politics I know nothing about either. I am glad that you would not have to engage yourself so long ahead as to have to miss any college job that turned up – I presume a month’s notice on either side is all that is expected?
TherePerkinses, theTSE encourages EH's independence from;f4 isHale, Emilyfamily;w4EH's relations with aunt and uncle;a6 one thing that I do feel positive about, and it is desirable to consider and make up your mind about at once so as to be prepared. Whether you have this, or any other paid job which would mean your continuing to live in Boston, I think that you ought to make up your mind that you are not going to live with the Perkins’s. The temptation might be great, and the pressure upon you might be great, if you were in a position in which by combining your resources again you could make living easier for them. But I have told you before that there are times when the right thing to do is the morally hardest thing to do, because it looks superficially like the selfish thing. At such times one ought to be ready to face any misunderstanding and misrepresentation and mishandling of public opinion. (Some people will concede everything they ought not to, merely for the satisfaction of appearing unselfish). But there are things in oneself which it is mere turpitude to violate. Now, I am not going into my reasons for your keeping your independence and for not living with the Perkins’s, because some of my reasons you might not allow, and that would confuse the issue; I only want you to be quite sure that I am not considering what is good for you in any easy or material sense. I want you to live up to my belief in your character and courage, of course; and I don’t want in any way to be disappointed in you! So there, for the present.
I want to get this posted at lunch time, so as to have plenty of time to catch the Europa. And I promise myself, if I am out by Saturday, as I hope to be, the pleasure of sending you a weekend letter. Ittravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4TSE and EH's final weeks in London;f3 is very dismal being in bed here, I assure you, thinking of the time when you came in to sit with me twice a day: that illness has spoilt me for any other. And I want to be able-bodied all the time so as to be able to feel that I could come to you at any moment if need were. If you could come in now and put your arm under my head and we could stay for a long time in silence, I should be perfectly happy, my Darling my Dear my Love.
12.CliveBell, Clive Bell (1881–1964), author and critic of art: see Biographical Register.
6.DavidGarnett, David Garnett (1892–1981), author, publisher; founder with Francis Meynell of the Nonesuch Press; author of Lady into Fox (1922: James Tait Black Memorial Prize), The Sailor’s Return (1925), and Aspects of Love (1955 – the source for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, 1989). See Sarah Knights, Bloomsbury’s Outsider: A Life of David Garnett (2015).
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.