[c/o Revd J. C. Perkins, D.D., 90 Commonweath Ave., Boston]
Letter 14.
ThisHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2EH sends TSE 'snowflake' socks;e8 last week I went to town for one night, and found two parcels awaiting me each containing one sock. I tried them on that night, and they fit me perfectly, are extremely comfortable, and have already been admired. You have nothing more to learn about knitting socks: I imagine that this fine knitting is particularly difficult and trying to the eyes as well, and I hope that you were not working on them while you were feeling ill. I don’t understand how you got the snowflakes into them, as they don’t seem to be part of the yarn. I think they are extremely pretty and am very proud to have them. The heavy fawn socks I have just been giving a second wearing (I had not tried them again until the colder weather) and they fit me better than they did at first: in fact, except for a slight bulge about the heel, where they seem a bit too full, they are a pretty good fit, and they are very good looking with country clothes (I have no brown town suit). I hope that they will last for the rest of my life!
I am waiting impatiently for information about Grand Manan. Whether letters take longer from there, or less time, depends upon the route. (ISheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister);i2 also hope thatEliot, Theresa Garrett (TSE's sister-in-law);b8 I may get some news about you from Theresa or Ada: the more sources of information the better).
I think that I have recovered from this cold: I am taking various vitamins and other preparations, and am going to have some injections as well. Tomorrow I go up for two nights, but shall stop at the club: next23 Russell Square, LondonTSE and Fabers move into;a3 week the Fabers will start using the flat, havingFabers, themove into 23 Russell Square;f3 not settled at Minsted, and I shall start at the flat myself, as they will have been there for a couple of nights before me and will have done something to get it warmed up. (Keeping warm is the problem of the winter. Nobody is to start any central heat until November, and part of the time at Shamley I have found that I needed to be more warmly dressed indoors than out, so that it is difficult to adjust oneself).
I am very depressed and unhappy, after as well as before writing to you last week; and I do not see that anything can make me less so – only if one lives long with the same unhappiness, one gets as used to it as to any other affliction; so long as new miseries do not arise, for oneself and for others and especially for you.
ILittle GiddingNEW version sent to EH;b9 am sending you a copy of ‘Little Gidding’ in the New English Weekly.
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.