[5 Clement Circle, Cambridge, Mass.]
The time of departure is coming so near that I am too impatient to be able to write long letters, but I can catch one fast boat before I sail, and you will get this before I am in sight of land. Had I been able to write yesterday I should have caught the Queen Mary instead of the Europa; but of course the last days are very crowded ones, with interviews and meals with people, and trying to think of all the business matters to be left in order. I am trying to keep Friday quite free, for final shopping and errands and packing, but to-day and tomorrow are full enough – tonightHayward, John;f3 I dine with John Hayward – lastChandos Group;a3 night with the Chandos Group – theMorleys, the;h9 night before with the Morleys who had just got back from Wales – yesterday afternoon I gave up an hour to a woman in my parish who wants to write a play and thinks that I know something about the business – I don’t, not the sort of play she wants to write – and the slightest suggestion from me led to complete changes in the plot, which she insisted on detailing over and over until I quite lost track of it.
ItHale, Emilyhealth, physical and mental;w6suffers crisis body and soul;b3 has been joyful to have your last two letters with envelopes in your own hand, and to think that you are making progress – though to you it naturally seems very slow. I realise that you have been through horrid depths, and you have never been out of my mind; I hope and believe that you will issue from this struggle stronger and more serene: and may my visit help and not hinder! INoyes, Penelope Barker;d5 hope that you will, as Penelope and the Davols (?) [sic] wish, get a week or so away in better air and greater peace than that of Cambridge – eitherAmericaRandolph, New Hampshire;g9the Eliot siblings return to;a2 before September 1st or while I am at Randolph between the 7th and 15th. (SpeakingHuxley, Julian;a4 of Penelope, I have sent an introduction to Julian Huxley1 to Miss Margaret Foster, but I don’t know whether Julian is in London, and I am still vague as to who Miss Foster is, I can’t understand why Penelope didn’t tell her to look me up first, so that I could have written more intelligently to Julian about her.) ISheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister)hosts TSE on 1936 arrival;g5 hope that Mrs. Perkins will understand about my going to Ada’s – I did write some time ago. As Ada changed her date of visiting the Haywards in order to see more of me I have no alternative. MySmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece)returns to America with TSE;b7 niece Dodo has changed her sailing so as to be on the same boat with me – I was not particularly enthusiastic about that, but it may have advantages as well as disadvantages, in helping to avoid bores and deck sports. I have got a small birthday present for you, but I am doubtful about it, and if you don’t like it you are to say so because I can bring it back and change it for something you would like better, against your next visit to England.
I expect we shall arrive at Montreal on the evening of Sunday the 30th, and unless unexpected haste forbids, will wire you at once. But there will probably be plenty of time at the customs. We may of course have to spend the night in Montreal or on the boat; so that it is impossible to say whether I shall arrive in Boston on Monday morning or Monday evening. I look forward to a letter from you on the boat, and perhaps another at Montreal. And so, my darling, I say goodbye for the next twelve days.
1.See letter of 22 Dec. 1935, above.
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
12.PenelopeNoyes, Penelope Barker Barker Noyes (1891–1977), who was descended from settlers of the Plymouth Colony, lived in a historic colonial house (built in 1894 for her father James Atkins Noyes) at 1 Highland Street, Cambridge, MA. Unitarian. She was a close friend of EH.
2.AdaSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister) Eliot Sheffield (1869–1943), eldest of the seven Eliot children; author of The Social Case History: Its Construction and Content (1920) and Social Insight in Case Situations (1937): see Biographical Register.
2.TheodoraSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece) Eliot Smith (1904–92) – ‘Dodo’ – daughter of George Lawrence and Charlotte E. Smith: see Biographical Register. Theodora’sSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece) sister was Charlotte Stearns Smith (b. 1911), known as ‘Chardy’.