_From the Diary of Godfrey Mellor_
_Monday, March_ 16_th._
I asked C. where he got his cigarettes. He said he got them from a
little man who lived _behind_ the Haymarket. Everybody seems to get
their cigarettes and their shirts from a "little man." The little man
apparently never lives in a street but always _behind_ a street.
My new piano, a Cottage Broadwood, arrived to-day. It is bought on the
three years' system.
_Tuesday, March_ 17_th._
Dined with my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Arthur last night, in Eccleston
Square. A large dinner-party: a Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign
Affairs, the French Chargé d'Affaires and his wife, the Editor of _The
Whig_ and his wife, Lord and Lady Saint-Edith, Professor Miles, Sir
Herbert Wilmott and Lady Wilmott, Mr Julius K. Lee of the American
Embassy, and Mrs Lovell-Smythies, the novelist.
As we were all waiting for dinner in the dark library downstairs a Miss
Magdalen Cross came in late, carrying a book in her hand. "This book,"
she said to us all, "is well worth reading." It was a German novel by
Sudermann. An old lady who was standing next to her, and who I
afterwards discovered was the widow of the Bishop of Exminster, said:
"You prepared that entry in your cab, dear Magdalen." Miss Cross
blushed. I took her in to dinner. She talked of sculpture, the Chinese
nation, German novels, and Russian music. She has been three times round
the world. She has no liking for most German music and cannot abide
Brahms. She likes Wagner, Chopin, Russian Church music and Spanish
songs. On the other side I had the wife of the French Chargé d'Affaires.
She said: "J'adore l'odeur des paquets anglais." Her favourite English
author, she said, was Mrs Humphry Wood. I did not like to ask her if
she meant Mrs Humphry Ward or Mrs Henry Wood. She said the works of this
novelist made her weep.
When we were left in the dining-room after dinner, Lord Saint-Edith,
Professor Miles and Hallam (of _The Whig_) had a long argument about
some lines in Dante, and this led them to the Baconian theory. Lord
Saint-Edith said he couldn't understand people thinking Bacon had
written Shakespeare's plays. If they said Shakespeare had written the
works of Bacon as a pastime he could understand it. He believed Homer
was written by Homer. The Professor was paradoxical and said he thought
the Odyssey was a forgery. "Tacitus," he said, "was known to be one."
After dinner upstairs there was tea but no music. Uncle Arthur is
growing very deaf and forgetful and asked me how I was getting on at
Balliol.
Aunt Ruth told me she had asked my new chief to dinner, but that he had
refused. "Of course," she said, "this is not the kind of house he would
find amusing. But considering how well I knew his father I think it
would be only civil for him to come to one of my Thursday evenings."
_Wednesday, March_ 17_th._
I dined at the Housmans' last night. It was a dinner for A. He was the
guest of the evening. To meet him there were Lady Maria Lyneham, who
must be over seventy; a French lady of imposing presence called, if I
caught the name correctly, the Princesse de Carignan and who, Housman
whispered to me, was a Bourbon, and if she had her rights would be Queen
of France to-day; a secretary from the Italian Embassy; Mr and Mrs
Baines. Mr Baines is an official at the British Museum and is half
French. His wife, he told me, had once been taken for Sarah Bernhardt.
There were several other people: Sir Herbert Simcox, the K.C., and Lady
Simcox, an art critic, a lady journalist and Miss Housman.
A. sat between Mrs Housman and Lady Simcox. Housman had the Princesse de
Carignan on his right and Lady Maria on his left. I sat between Lady
Maria and Miss Housman. Lady Maria told me she dined out whenever she
could, and asked me to luncheon on Sunday. "Don't come," she said, "if
you mind meeting lions; I like pleasant people. Only I warn you I have
an old-fashioned prejudice for good manners and I always ask their
wives."
Mr Baines talked beautiful French to the Princesse. Lady Maria told me
she was neither French nor a princess, but the illegitimate daughter of
a Levantine. "But very respectable all the same, I'm afraid," she added.
After dinner a few people came. Among others, Housman's partner and
Esther Lake, the contralto. She sang (she brought her own accompanist)
some Handel and _Che faro_ and, by request of Mr Housman, Gounod's
_There is a Green Hill._
I drove home with A. He told me he had enjoyed himself immensely and he
thought Esther Lake was the finest singer in the world.
He said Miss Housman was a very clever woman and Housman appeared to be
quite a good sort.
He said he liked this kind of dinner-party.
_Thursday, March_ 18_th._
The first day there has been a feeling of spring in the air. I went to
St James's Park on the way to the office.
Dined at the Club.
_Friday, March_ 19_th._
A. asked me to spend Sunday with him in the country. I told him I was
sorry I was engaged to go out to luncheon on Sunday. He said I must come
the week after.
_Saturday, March_ 20_th._
C. said it was a great pity A. did not go out more. He used to go out a
great deal, he said. "I suppose," he added, "it's because he doesn't
wast to meet Mrs Shamier." I said I thought C. had told me he was fond
of her. "Yes," said C, "he was very fond of her, but that is all over
now."
_Sunday Evening, March_ _21_st.
I went to St Paul's Cathedral in the morning. Then to luncheon with Lady
Maria in her house in Seymour Place.
A curious luncheon. There were two actors and their wives, Father Seton,
and Mr Le Roy, who writes detective stories, and his wife, and Sir James
Croker.
I sat next to Mrs Le Roy, who is, she told me, a Greek. She told me her
husband had written one hundred and ten books, but that she had read
none of them. She said it worried him if she read them. She said it was
a great sacrifice as she doted on detective stories and was told his
were very good. The actors, who were both actor managers, told us about
their forthcoming productions. Mr Vane said there was going to be a real
panther in his next production (a Shakespearean revival). Mr Jones Acre
is producing a play which is translated from the Swedish, and which
deals with the question of a man who has inoculated himself and his
whole family with a fatal disease, in the interests of science.
Father Seton took a great interest in the stage, and said he considered
the Church and the stage should be close allies. The clergy took far too
little interest in these things. It was a pity, he said, to let the
Romans have the monopoly of that kind of thing. This surprised Mrs Le
Roy, who said she thought he was a Roman Catholic. He laughed and said
Rome would have to capitulate on many points before any idea of
corporate reunion could be entertained.
Sir James Croker told stories of early days in the Foreign Office and
Lord Palmerston.
We sat on talking until half-past three. I then went home and read _Jane
Eyre_.
_Letter from Guy Cunninghame to Mrs Caryl_
HALKIN STREET,
_March_ 25_th._