[No surviving envelope]
Your welcome letter of February 18th arrived this morning, by the ‘Europa’ – these two German boats do seem to convey mail more quickly than the others: by the way, the last letter you seem to have received is mine of the 11th; but according to my diary there are three others which you have not expressly mentioned: two of the 31st January and one of the 2nd February. I am rather tired, as it is Wednesday night, and I have to be off early in the morning to see my solicitor in Grays Inn; butHutchinsons, the;b1 as I am dining, for the first time for a very long time, with the Hutchinsons tomorrow night, and as I want to catch the ‘Washington’ tomorrow, I will answer somewhat tonight. (G.O.M. is Grand Old Man, of course; originally applied, I believe, to Gladstone).1 But I am very well, at present, and the weather has been quite tolerable.
IBrackett, Louisa;a1 amSt. Catherine's School, Richmond, Va.keeps EH in suspense;a4 sorry that you have not, up to the 18th, heard from Mrs. Brackett of Virginia. I do think it is inconsiderate; for at least she could have sent you an interim line to apologise for the delay: I had counted upon your next letter bringing the news of that being settled in one way or another. Meanwhile, my Love, do you keep well and what do you do with yourself? IPerkinses, theTSE encourages EH's independence from;f4 amHale, Emilyfamily;w4EH's relations with aunt and uncle;a6 glad that you have not, or had not up to the moment of writing, transferred yourself to the Perkins’s. You do not say whether your motive was partly to contribute towards their living expenses by being with them, but whether it was or not, I beg you to refrain. Your being in more luxurious quarters does not make matters worse for them, and I do not approve of your scruples on the matter. I think it is probably true that your uncle misses you more than Mrs. Perkins does; but he has been without you before, most of the time, and in Boston he should be better off, in the way of companions and interests, than anywhere else. I have positive opinions on the subject of your living with relatives, based soundly on observations – I don’t object to Miss Ware from that point of view, for simple reasons. But so long as you have to be in Boston, you ought to preserve yourself from it, else your mind will imperceptibly get narrower instead of broader! Perhaps I shall speak more freely on the implications of these remarks at another time. And while it is a good thing to see through someone else’s eyes, as you say, it is not a good thing to do that all the time, or at the expense of one’s powers of criticism.
Don’tAbyssinia Crisis;a7 be completely seduced by Italian emissaries. No one supposes that any nation is ever actuated by pure motives, but the fact remains that the Italian war is a war of unprovoked aggression, and that British interests coincided as nearly as possible, on this occasion, with the right. It is also more than doubtful whether the conquest of colonies will do more than increase the prestige of the government at home. ILeague of NationsTSE against in principle;a3 have always, however, considered the League of Nations an undesirable institution, founded on the wrong principles and concerning itself with the wrong objects and living on general hypocrisy. The enthusiasm for general re-armament – partly as a device to create a little artificial prosperity for a time – is very depressing.
I am so sleepy and stupid that I think I must stop now and write again on Friday. My Love, I fold you and kiss you goodnight.
1.‘Grand Old Man’ – routinely abbreviated to ‘GOM’ – was indeed first used of Prime Minister William Gladstone (1809–98), who won his final election at the age of eighty-three.
2.EHBrackett, Louisa hoped for a position at St. Catherine’s School, Westhampton, Richmond, Virginia (a girls’ school, est. 1917). Louisa Brackett, wife of J. R. Brackett, was headmistress, 1924–47.