I have just come back from Rosedale, where we had a most amusing Sunday,
rather spoilt by the incessant rain. Of course it cleared up _this_
morning, and it's now a glorious day. The Housmans were asked and she
came, and he was expected by a later train, but chucked at the last
minute. Nobody was there except Mrs Campion, Freda, and Godfrey.
We had a lot of music. Mrs Housman never let George have one moment's
conversation with her. He is quite miserable. It is quite clear that she
has cut him out of her life. I think it would have been better if he had
gone to Madras. It's too late now, they've appointed someone else.
Last Tuesday I went to a huge dinner-party at Lady Arthur Mellor's,
Godfrey's aunt. Sir Arthur is quite gaga and took me for George the
whole evening. I sat between an English blue stocking and the wife of
one of the Russian secretaries. She told me rather pointedly that these
were the kind of people she preferred. "Ici," she said, "on voit de
vrais Anglais, des gens vraiment bien." There was no gainsaying that.
But of course the chief news, which you probably have heard, is that
Louise Shamier has left her husband, and she is going to marry
Lavroff--that is to say, if she gets a divorce. He apparently refused to
do the necessary in the way of making a divorce possible, so she has
left him and has gone to Italy with Lavroff. Everybody thinks it is the
greatest pity, and I, personally, am miserable about it. The only
comfort is that it might have been George.
Yrs.
G.
_From the Diary of Godfrey Mellor_
_Monday, May_ 16_th._
Caught a bad cold at Rosedale from walking in the wet.
_Tuesday, May_ 17_th._
Cold worse. Saw the doctor, who said I must go to bed and not think of
going to the office.
_Wednesday, May_ 18_th._
Stayed in bed all day and read a book called _Sir Archibald Malmaison_,
by Julian Hawthorne.
_Thursday, May_ 19_th._
Better. Got up.
_Friday, May_ 20_th._
Went to the office.
_Saturday, May_ 21st.
Went down to Staines to the Housmans'. Found Lady Jarvis, A. and Mrs
Fairburn. At dinner Mrs Fairburn talked of the Shamier divorce. Mrs
Housman said she admired people who behaved like that, and she thought
it far better than a hidden liaison. Mrs Fairburn agreed, and said there
was nothing she despised so much as dishonesty and concealment.
_Sunday, May_ 22_nd_.
It again rained all Sunday, so we were unable to go on the river. It
cleared up in the evening. Housman took Mrs Fairburn out in a punt.
Housman told us he had taken for the summer the same house they had last
year at Carbis Bay. He invited A. to come there and to stay as long as
he liked. A. said he would be yachting on the west coast this summer and
he would certainly pay them a visit. Housman said Lady Jarvis must come,
and he is going to ask Cunninghame. Mrs Fairburn said it was a pity she
would not be able to come, but she always spent August and September in
France.
_Monday, May_ 23_rd_.
I had luncheon with Cunninghame at his Club. He said that A. does not
seem quite so depressed as usual.
Dined at the Club.
_Tuesday, May_ 24_th._
A. is giving a dinner to some French _députés_ at his Club. Cunninghame
and I have both been invited.
_Wednesday, May_ 25_th._
Dined at the Club with Solway. Went to the Opera afterwards, for which
Solway had been given two places. Debussy's _Pelléas et Mélisande_. We
both enjoyed it.
_Thursday, May_ 26_th._
Dined with Aunt Ruth. I had a long talk with her after dinner. She asked
after Riley, whom she knows well. "I hear," she said, "he has become a
Roman Catholic; of course he will always have a _parti-pris_ now. I
wonder if he has realised that." Uncle Arthur joined in the conversation
and thought we were talking of someone else, but of whom I have no
idea, as he said it all came from not going to school. Riley has been to
three schools, besides Oxford, Heidelberg and Berlin universities, and
has taken his degree in French law. He, Riley, is staying with me
to-morrow night.
_Friday, May_ 27_th._
I told Riley that I had heard a lady discussing his conversion lately,
and that she had wondered whether he realised that he would have a
_parti-pris_ in future. Riley said: "I rather hope I shall. Do you
really think one becomes a Catholic to drift like a sponge on a sea of
indecision, or to be like an Æolian harp? Don't you yourself think," he
said, "that _parti-pris_ is rather a mild term for such a tremendous
decision, such a _venture_? Would your friend think _parti-pris_ the
right expression to use of a man who nailed his colours to the mast
during a sea-battle? It is a good example of _miosis_." I asked him what
_miosis_ meant. He said that if I wanted another example it would be
miosis to say that the French Revolution put Marie Antoinette to
considerable inconvenience. Besides which, it was putting the cart
before the horse to say you would be likely to have a _parti-pris,_ when
by the act of becoming a Catholic you had proclaimed the greatest of all
possible _parti-pris_. It was like saying to a man who had enlisted in
the Army: "You will probably become very pro-British." "You won't," he
said, "think things out." I said that it was not I who had made the
comment, but my aunt, Lady Mellor.
_Saturday, May_ 28_th._
A. has gone to the country. Dined at the Club.
_Sunday, May_ 29_th._
Had luncheon with Lady Maria. The company consisted of Hollis, the
play-wright, and his wife, Miss Flora Routledge, who, I believe, began
to write novels in the sixties, Sir Hubert Taylor, the Academician, and
his wife, and Sir Horace Main, K.C. I was the only person present not a
celebrity.
Lady Maria asked me how the Housmans were. She had not seen them for an
age. I said the Housmans were living in the country.
She said I must bring A. to luncheon one Sunday. "Who would he like to
meet?" she asked; "I am told he only likes musicians, and I am so
unmusical, I know so few. But perhaps he only likes beautiful
musicians." I said I was sure A. would be pleased to meet anyone she
asked. She said: "I'm sure it's no use asking him; he's sure to be away
on Sundays." I said A. usually spent Sunday at Littlehampton. "Or on the
Thames," Lady Maria said.
She said she hadn't seen the Housmans for a year. She heard Mr Housman
had dropped all his old friends.
_Letter from Guy Cunninghame to Mrs Caryl_
_Monday, May_ 30_th_.