I dined with the Housmans last night. Only myself, Miss Sarah, Lady
Jarvis, and Godfrey Mellor. Everything as it used to be.
Carrington-Smith came in after dinner. He has not been inside the house
for months. I don't know what Mrs Housman did nor how it was done, but
it _was_ done, and done most successfully and quickly! She only came
back a week ago. "Bert" looks quite different and is perfectly radiant.
George, I gather, hasn't seen her. They asked him to dinner last night,
but he had an official dinner and couldn't come. He asked me whether I
had seen her. He said he had been there several times, but she had
always been out. He is still most depressed and goes nowhere unless he
is absolutely obliged to. The Housmans have asked me to spend Easter at
their villa. Lady Jarvis is going, and Godfrey; and Housman told me he
was going to ask George. I am going and I shall stop two or three days
in Paris on the way.
Lavinia Wray has gone to the south of France with her aunt. The Shamiers
are going to Paris next week. They will tell you all the news, not that
there is much.
Yrs.
G.
_From the Diary of Godfrey Mellor_
_Monday, February_ 28_th._
A. told me he had not been to the country after all on Saturday.
_Tuesday, March_ 1_st_.
Dined with the Housmans, a very agreeable dinner. Mrs Housman played and
sang after dinner: Brahms' _Lieder_, and some Grieg.
_Wednesday, March_ 2_nd_.
A. asked me to luncheon. He told me he had been so sorry not to be able
to go to the Housmans' last night. He said he had not seen them yet. He
was so busy. He asked me how Mrs Housman was and whether Florence had
done her good.
_Thursday, March_ 3_rd_.
I told Riley I had been reading Renan's _Souvenirs d'enfance et de
jeunesse_, and that Renan said in this book that there was nothing in
Catholic dogmas which raised in him a contrary opinion; nothing either
in the political action or in the spirit of the Church, either in the
past or in the present, that led him to doubt; but directly he studied
the "Higher Criticism" and German text-books his faith in the Church
crumbled. I asked Riley what he thought of this. He said people treated
German text-books superstitiously then and they still did so now. If
German text-books dealt with Shakespeare people could see at once that
they were talking nonsense, and that mountains of erudition were being
built on a false base, a base which we knew to be false, because we were
English; but when they dealt with things more remote, like the Gospels,
people swallowed what they said, and accepted any of their theories as
infallible dogma. In twenty years' time, he said, nobody will care two
straws for the "Higher Criticism."
Riley is going away to-morrow.
_Friday, March_ 4_th._
Mrs Housman has written to ask me to come and see her on Sunday
afternoon if I am in London.
Dined with Cunninghame at a restaurant and went to the Palace Music Hall
afterwards.
_Saturday, March_ 5_th._
A. is much annoyed at having to stay with the Foreign Secretary. Dined
at the Club.
_Sunday, March_ 6_th._
Spent the afternoon at Mrs Housman's. There was nobody there until
Housman came in late just when I was going. Housman said we must all
meet at Florence. He said he was going to ask A. "But we never see him
now," he added. He asked me what A. was doing. I told him he was staying
with the Foreign Secretary. He said, of course he was right to attend to
his official and especially to his social duties. He said he would ask
him to dinner next week. He asked me to dine on Wednesday. Mrs Housman
asked me to go to a concert with her on Tuesday.
_Monday, March_ 7_th._
Dined at the Club.
_Tuesday, March_ 8_th._
Went to a concert in Chelsea with Mrs Housman, Housman and Miss Housman.
Solway played, and an excellent violinist, Miss Bowden; Beethoven Sonata
(G Major) and Schubert Quartet (D Minor). We all enjoyed the music and
the playing. During the interval we went to see Solway. Housman asked
him to dinner to-morrow.
_Wednesday, March_ 9_th._
Dined with the Housmans. Lady Jarvis, Mrs Campion, Solway, Cunninghame,
Mrs Baines, and A. and Miss Housman were there. I sat between Lady
Jarvis and Mrs Campion. After dinner Mrs Housman asked Solway to try a
song with her, a new English song by a boy who has just left the
College of Music. She sang this and after that she sang all the
_Winterreise_. Housman asked A. and Mrs Campion to stay with them in
Florence. Mrs Campion cannot get away this Easter. A. accepted the
invitation.
_Thursday, March_ 10_th._
Went after dinner to Aunt Ruth's. Uncle Arthur is quite restored to
health. He asked me whether I had been appointed to Paris, still
thinking that I was in the F.O. There were a great many people there.
Aunt Ruth spoke severely about A. and said she heard he only went out in
the Bohemian world. I said he had stayed with the Foreign Secretary last
week.
_Friday, March_ 11_th._
Dined with Mrs Campion. A. was there and the Albertis, who are over in
England. A. said he was much looking forward to Florence. Easter is
early this year.
_Saturday, March_ 12_th._
A. has gone to Littlehampton. He has asked the Housmans and Cunninghame.
I am going to Woking.
_Sunday, March_ 13_th._
Spent the day with Solway, who played Bach. Returned by the late train
after dinner.
_Letter from Guy Cunninghame to Mrs Caryl_
LONDON,
_Monday, March_ 14_th._