1921
_From the Diary of Godfrey Mellor_
_Friday, December_ 18_th_, 1908. _Gray's Inn_.
I went to the station this morning to see the Housmans off. They are
leaving for Egypt and intend to stay there a month or perhaps two
months. They are stopping a few days at Paris on the way.
_Saturday, December_ 19_th_.
My Christmas holidays begin. I am spending Christmas with Uncle Arthur
and Aunt Ruth. I have to be back at the office on the first of January.
_Thursday, January_ 1_st_, 1909. _Gray's Inn_.
Received a post-card from Mrs Housman, from Cairo.
_Monday, February_ 2_nd_.
Received a letter from Mrs Housman. They are returning to London.
_Sunday, February_ 8_th_.
The Housmans return to-morrow. They have been away one month and
twenty-one days.
_Monday, February_ 9_th_.
Went to meet the Housmans at the station. They are going straight into
their new house at Campden Hill and are giving a house-warming dinner
next Monday, to which I have been invited.
_Tuesday, February_ 10_th._
Lord Ayton has been made Parliamentary Under-Secretary. I do not know
him but I remain in the office. He is taking me on.
_Monday, February_ 16_th. Gray's Inn_.
The Housmans had their house-warming in their new house at Campden Hill.
I was the first to arrive.
On one of the walls in the drawing-room there is the large portrait of
Mrs Housman by Walter Bell, which I had never seen since it was
exhibited in the New Gallery ten years ago. It was always being lent for
exhibitions when I went to the old house in Inverness Terrace. While I
was looking at this picture Housman joined me and apologised for being
late. He said the portrait of Mrs Housman was Bell's _chef-d'oeuvre_.
He liked it _now._ Then he said: "We are having some music to-night.
Solway is dining with us and will play afterwards. He plays for nothing
here, an old friend; you know him? Miss Singer is coming too. You know
her? She writes. I don't read her."
At that moment Mrs Housman came in and almost immediately Mr and Mrs
Carrington-Smith were announced. Mr Carrington-Smith is Housman's
partner, an expert in deep-breathing besides being rich. Mrs
Carrington-Smith had lately arrived from Munich. The other guests
were--Miss Housman (Housman's sister), Lady Jarvis, Miss Singer, whom I
was to take in to dinner, a city friend of Mr Housman's, Mr James
Randall, a little man with a silk waistcoat, and, the last to arrive,
Solway. I sat on Mrs Housman's left, next to Miss Singer.
Carrington-Smith sat on Mrs Housmans right; Housman sat at the head of
the table, between Mrs Carrington-Smith and Lady Jarvis. Miss Singer
talked to me earnestly at first. She is writing on the Italian
Renaissance. I told her I was ignorant of the subject, upon which her
earnestness subsided, and she smiled. Then we talked of music, where I
felt more at home. She had been to all Solway's concerts. She is not a
Wagnerite. Just as we were beginning to get on smoothly there was a
shuffle in the conversation and Mrs Housman turned to me.