[No surviving envelope]

Your letter of the 24th came this afternoon: I was distressed to hear of the loss of your friend Mrs. Little. I regret much that I never met her: what you tell me now amplifies what you have said before, from time to time, and makes it clear that you have lost a friend whom no one can replace. (ItBrownes, the Martin;c6 seems curious that the Brownes should have met, and can remember, one so important in your life whom I have never known). You do not say, nor do I remember, how long you had known her, or for how long she had been such an intimate of yours. IPerkinses, the;l6 am sure that you will constantly miss her, especially in your relations with the Perkins’s; it must have come acutely home to you after the experience at lunch there, a few days before, which you mention in this letter. (Well, one can hardly expect real understanding from one’s nearest relatives: butEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)as brother;k2 IEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)importance as sister;e5 wish you had someone near to you in blood, with whom you could at least feel the repose of warm affection that I can get with Henry and Marion. I can’t talk to them intimately, and with Henry certainly there are always reasons why I find being with him, after a time, a strain: but I always feel that I am prized, and that the affection I can give them means a great deal to them). And it is hard to reconcile oneself to the fact that one cannot give eyes to the blind – least of all to the mentally or spiritually blind, for at least, with physical blindness, one can do a great deal to replace the lack of sight – and the physically blind know what it is that they lack.

Your other piece of news, about the lodger, is more cheering. I do hope that she will wear well, as she has begun well; and I like to think that you expect to take more evening meals at home than you had anticipated. I also like to think of you engaging in cooking. Now I shall, in due course, want to be reassured that your work in Concord, and in running a house, and going in to lecture in Boston, are not in combination going to be too much.

Theresa’sEliot, Theresa Garrett (TSE's sister-in-law)relationship with Henry;d6 letter is not very forthcoming, certainly: I am sure not deliberately or consciously reserved. Perhaps, if I could ever have discussed my own affairs more freely with Henry, and got through his reserve, it would have been easier for Theresa; but I do think that she has been somewhat numbed by living with Henry, and I think that a great deal of the time he must be very depressing for her. IEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)Henry's fondness for;e6 am still worried by her remarking to me, one day in July, that Henry was fonder of Marion than of her; and also by her feeling that Henry mustn’t see her talking too much with me, out of his hearing. They were devoted to each other in their way, and yet it is not a perfectly happy atmosphere. I think he has brooded too much on his ‘failure’ in life, which seems much more of a failure to him than to others; and I am always constrained by the feeling (which Theresa has too) that he contrasts his own ‘failure’ with my ‘success’ (though he doesn’t know at what price that ‘success’ has been paid for): but I am the last person to have the right to censure him on this ground. Well, you have made your approach, my dear, and you can do no more at present. Perhaps, with my next visit, and their gradually getting to know me better through frequentation, things may alter.

ANason, Margaret ('Meg') Geraldinesends TSE birthday cake;a3 magnificent birthday cake arrived from Meg (who is rejoicing in her approaching two weeks holiday in Cornwall) andTandy, Pollysends TSE birthday chicken;a3 a boiling chicken from Polly Tandy; and at the same time a case of provisions arrived from an unknown lady in Australia, so we are set up for the moment. I shall be glad when this theological conference is over: butNotes Towards the Definition of CultureTSE writing;a5 the contribution they expect from me (a paper which may be incorporated into their report to the Archbishop) is directly in line with one of the chapters in my book (I have written the introduction and the first four chapters, and there remain but two chapters to add) and the discussion, or some of it, may be helpful to my own work. Besides, it is an aspect of the problem in which my own thinking is, I believe, rather pioneer.

IKinchin Smith, F.;a3 have got in touch with Kinchin Smith of The Trojan Women.