I am stopping here till Saturday, then Worsel, then Edith's. You had
better write to Edith's. Yesterday morning we were in the town, George,
Godfrey and I, and we met Jimmy Randall, who has come here in the
Goldberg's yacht. They had been to St Malo and other places in France.
When we said we were staying with the Housmans, Randall said there was
not much chance of our seeing Housman for some time as he was having the
time of his life with Mrs Fairburn at a little place near Deauville.
This came as a revelation to George, who had no idea of Housman's
adventures. He has scarcely spoken since. We are having a very happy
time and I am miserable at having to go away. George is quite well. He
has sent for his yacht, but he is not staying on very long as he has got
to go to one or two places before he goes back to London. The weather
has been divine. Godfrey is quite cheerful.
I shan't write again till I get to Edith's. I shan't stop more than a
night at Worsel on the way.
Edith is clamouring for me to come. The Caryls are staying there.
Yrs.
G.
_From the Diary of Godfrey Mellor_
_Thursday, August_ 25_th._
I went out for a walk with Cunninghame; he asked me whether I had liked
_John Inglesant_. I said I had it read with interest but it gave me the
creeps; it had the chill of a dream world; I preferred the character of
Eustace Inglesant to that of his brother John. Cunninghame said he had
read it five times; that _John Inglesant_, Flaubert's _Trois Contes_ and
Anthony Hope's _The King's Mirror_ were his three favourite books. I had
read neither of the others. Mrs Housman and A. went for a walk in the
afternoon. After dinner Lady Jarvis read out a story by Stevenson.
_Friday, August_ 26_th._
Mrs Housman went to the town in the afternoon. A. and Cunninghame played
golf. I went for a walk with Lady Jarvis. She talked about Mrs Housman.
She said it was wonderful what comfort she (Mrs H.) found in her
religion. As far as she herself was concerned, she had never ceased to
appreciate the luxury of not going to church on Sunday, so much had she
disliked being made to go to church before she was grown up. I said Mrs
Housman had told me that Roman Catholic children enjoyed going to
church. She said: "Yes, and their grown-up people too. Clare will
probably go to church this afternoon. If I was a Catholic I could
understand it." She said it was the only religion she could understand.
"Unhappily to be a Catholic," she said, "one must believe. I am not
talking of the ritual and the discipline--I mean one must _believe_,
have faith in the supernatural, and I have none." She said that she
thought religion was an instinct. Her religion consisted in trying not
to hurt other people's feelings. That was difficult enough. She said she
had once come across this phrase in a French book: "Aimez-vous les uns
les autres, c'est beaucoup dire supportez-vous les uns les autres, c'est
déjà assez difficile." Some people, she said, arrived at religion by
disbelieving in disbelief. She didn't believe in dogmatic _disbelief
but_ that didn't lead _her_ to anything positive. She said she was glad
for Mrs Housman that she had her religion. I asked her if she thought
Mrs Housman was very unhappy. She said: "Yes; but there comes a moment
in unhappiness when people realise that they must either live, or die.
Clare passed that moment a long time ago." People often made God in
their own image. Mrs Housman had a beautiful character. She, Lady
Jarvis, had no stuff in her to project a deity with. She thought that
religion seldom affected conduct. She thought Mrs Housman would have
been just the same if she had been brought up as a free-thinker or a
Presbyterian. She thought her marriage and her whole life had been a
gigantic mistake. She ought, she said, to have been a professional
singer. She was an artist by nature. I said I was struck by Mrs Housmans
strong common-sense and her tact in dealing with people. "That would
have made her all the greater as an artist," Lady Jarvis said. "In all
arts you want to be good at other things besides that art. Riding needs
mind." She said it was no good wishing to be otherwise but she thought
it was very tragic. She said: "If I believed there was another life,
this sort of thing wouldn't matter, but as I don't it matters very
much." I said it struck me the other way round. If one didn't believe in
a future life I didn't see that anything could matter very much. I asked
her if she positively believed there wasn't another life. She said: "I
don't know. I only know I don't believe in a future life." I asked her
if that wasn't faith. She said very possibly, but she at any rate hadn't
the fervent faith in no-God that some atheists had. In any case she was
not intolerant about it. I asked her if it had not often struck her
that agnostics and free-thinkers were still more intolerant than
religious people and that they had least business to be. She said that
was exactly what she had meant. The religion of other people irritated
them; they wanted people to share their particular form of unbelief. She
never did that. She thought dogmatic disbelief intolerable. She had the
greatest respect for Catholics and would give anything to be able to be
one. Mrs Housman never spoke about her religion. We talked about
reading. I said I always read the newspapers or rather _The Times_ every
day. I had done so for fifteen years. She said she never did except in
the train but she knew the news as well as I did. We talked about what
is good reading for the train and about journeys. I told her of a
journey I had once taken in France in a third-class carriage. She said
it was lucky one forgot physical discomfort at once unlike mental
discomfort. She said something about the appalling unnaturalness of
people when they had to deal with death, and then of the misery in
seeing other people suffer, of the hardness of some people, and of a
book she had just been reading, called _Katzensteg_, by Sudermann, and
then of Germans, and so, to music, of Housman's great undeveloped
musical talent, of Jews, how favourable the mixture of Jewish and German
blood was to music. I said something about Jews being rarely men of
creation or action. She said they were just as persistent in getting
what they wanted as men of action, so she supposed that it came to the
same. Disraeli was a man of action, she supposed, and all the great
socialists, Marx and Lassalle, they got what they wanted. "Un de nous a
voulu être Dieu et il l'a été," she said a Jewish financier had once
said. This led her to Heine. He was her favourite writer, both in prose
and verse. Had I ever read his prose? I ought to read _Geschichte der
Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland._ It was the most brilliant book
of criticism she knew. It was the Jews who had invented all great
religions, and socialism was the invention of the Jews. Some people said
the Russian revolution was Jewish in idea and leadership and might very
likely lead to a new political creed. She said she hated anti-Semitism.
This led us to Christianity. Christianity to her meant Catholicism. She
could not understand any other form of it. She thought there was nothing
in the world more silly than attempts to make a religion of Christianity
without the Church--there could only be one Church. "But," I said, "you
disbelieve in it." She said: "Yes; but the only thing that could tempt
me to believe in it is the continued existence of the Catholic Church."
She said: "It's there; it's a fact, whether one believes in its divine
origin, as Clare does, or whether one doesn't, as I don't. It must
either all hang together or not exist. You can't take a part of it and
make a satisfactory and reasonable religion." Not only that,
nothing seemed to her more foolish than the attempts to make a religion
of Christianity without the Divine element, in which Christ was only a
very good man. I said if she did not believe in the divinity of Christ
the story could be nothing more to her than a fable. She said: "If one
only regards it as a fable, as I suppose I do--but again I have no
dogmatic disbelief in it--it is still the most beautiful, impressive,
wonderful and tragic story ever invented and it seems to me to lose its
whole point if Christ was only a man with hypnotic powers and a head
turned by ambition or illusion." She quoted a Frenchman, who had said
that he adored Jesus Christ as his Lord and God, but "s'il n'est qu'un
homme je préfère Hannibal." Napoleon too had said that he knew men and
Jesus Christ was not a man. Regarded as a story the whole point and
beauty of the Gospel were lost in all modern versions, rewritings,
explanations and interpretations, and none of them held together. She
said it was as if one rewrote the fairy tales and made the fairies not
fairies but only clever conjurers. By this time we had reached home.
_Saturday, August_ 27_th._
Cunninghame went away early this morning. Mrs Housman told me that she
was not going to spend the winter in London; she was going to Florence,
and it was possible she might be away for a whole year. A. went out this
afternoon with Lady Jarvis.
_Sunday, August_ 28_th._
Mrs York called in the afternoon. Mrs Housman was out with A. Lady
Jarvis and myself entertained her. She was most affable and not at all
stiff, as she was last year. She said she had known several of A.'s
relations in India. As she went away she said to Lady Jarvis, in the
hall: "You never told me Mrs Housman was an _American_--that makes
_all_ the difference."
_Monday, August_ 29_th._
We all went to the Land's End for the day.
_Tuesday, August_ 30_th._
A.'s yacht has arrived. We had luncheon on board and went for a short
sail in the afternoon; the sea was reasonably smooth, but Lady Jarvis
said that the sea under any conditions gave her a headache.
_Wednesday, August_ 31_st_.
Mrs Housman and A. went out for a sail in the morning and came back for
tea. A. says he will have to go away in a day or two. After dinner Mrs
Housman read out Burnand's _Happy Thoughts_.
_Thursday, September_ 1_st_.
A rainy day. Mrs Housman called on Mrs York and has asked her and the
General to luncheon next Sunday. I went out for a walk in the rain by
myself and got very wet. Mrs Housman said that the Indian servant stood
motionless behind Mrs York's chair during the whole of the visit. This
embarrassed her. She felt inclined to draw him into the conversation.
_Friday, September_ 2_nd_.
Mrs Housman went to the convent by herself. Lady Jarvis and A. went out
for a walk and I stayed at home. It is quite fine again. A. leaves next
Monday.
_Saturday, September_ 3_rd_.
A. wanted to go out sailing but Mrs Housman thought it was too windy. We
all went for a drive instead.
_Sunday, September_ 4_th_.
General York and Mrs York came to luncheon. The General was a little
nervous, but Mrs York was affable and friendly. She said she had never
got used to the English climate. Lady Jarvis asked Mrs York if she had
been to church. Mrs York said they had a church quite close to their
house in the village but she always drove to our village church,
although it was three miles off. She could not go to their church as she
did not approve of the clergyman's ritualistic practices. He used white
vestments at Easter, changed the order of the service, and allowed a
picture in church. All that, of course, made it impossible. They went
away soon after luncheon. I went for a walk with Lady Jarvis. After
dinner A. asked Mrs Housman to sing, but she said she would rather read.
She read _Happy Thoughts_ aloud.
_Monday, September_ 5_th._
A. left in his yacht. He said he would be back in London by the first of
October. He is stopping at Plymouth on the way.
_Tuesday, September_ 6_th._
Mrs Housman asked me if I had finished _Les Misérables_. I said I had
not gone on with it. She read aloud from it in the afternoon.
_Wednesday, September_ 7_th._
I leave to-morrow to stay with Aunt Ruth. I have to be in London on
the 19th. Lady Jarvis went to the village, we stayed in the garden.
After dinner, Mrs Housman sang some Schubert. She leaves Cornwall at the
end of the month and then goes to Florence, where she stays rill Easter
or perhaps longer.
_Monday, October_ 3_rd. London, Gray's Inn_.
Cunninghame and A. both came back to-day. Cunninghame asked me to dine
with him to-morrow.
_Tuesday, October_ 4_th._
Dined with Cunninghame alone in his flat. He said that he knew I had
some R.C. friends, perhaps I knew a priest. I said the only priest I had
ever spoken to was Father Stanway at Carbis Bay. He said he wanted to
consult a priest about certain rules in the R.C. Church. He wanted to
know under what conditions a marriage could be annulled. A friend of
his wanted a married woman to get her marriage annulled as her husband
was living with someone else. He wanted to know whether the marriage
could be annulled. I said I knew who he was talking about. He said he
had meant me to know. He had promised A. to find out from a priest. A.
had been told by her that it was out of the question to get the marriage
annulled. It had been a marriage entered into by her own free will and
performed with every necessary condition of validity. Of course she was
very young when she was married and didn't know what she was doing, but
that had nothing to do with it. Her aunt and the nuns in the convent
where she had been brought up had thought it was an excellent marriage,
as he was well off and a Catholic. Cunninghame begged me to go and see a
priest. I said I did not know how this was done. I suggested his asking
his cousin, Mrs Caryl. He said she was in Paris and that would be no
use, it would not satisfy A. I said I would think about it.
_Wednesday, October_ 5_th_.
I asked Tuke where and how one could find a priest who would be able to
tell one the rules of the Church with regard to marriage. Tuke said any
of the Fathers at Farm Street or the Oratory. In the afternoon I went to
the Oratory, sent in my card and asked to see a priest. I sat in a
little waiting-room downstairs. Presently a tall man came in with very
bright eyes and a face with nothing but character left in it. I told him
I had come for a friend. It was a case of divorce, or rather of
annulment. I knew his Church did not tolerate divorce. I was, myself,
not a Catholic. It was the case of a lady, a Catholic, who had married a
Catholic. The husband had always been unfaithful and was now almost
openly living with someone else. Could the marriage be annulled? The
priest asked whether she desired the marriage to be annulled. I told
him she had said it was impossible. He asked whether the marriage had
been performed under all conditions of validity. I said I did not myself
know what these conditions were, but that she had expressly said that
the marriage had been performed with her own free will, with every
necessary condition of validity. I knew she thought it was out of the
question to think of the marriage being annulled, but there was someone
who was most devoted to her and wanted to marry her, and he was not
satisfied with her saying it was impossible. He wanted the decision
confirmed by a priest and that was why I had come. The priest said he
was afraid from what I had told him that it was no use thinking of
annulment. It was clear from what I had said she knew quite well the
conditions that make it possible to apply for the annulment of a
marriage. He said he was sure it was a hard case. If I liked he would
lend me a book which went into the matter in detail. I said I would not
trouble him. It would be enough that I had seen him and heard this from
him. I then went away. I went straight back to the office and told C.
the result of my visit. He was most grateful to me for having done this.
He said he was dining with A. to-night. He said A. was in a terrible
state.
_Thursday, October_ 6_th_.
Cunninghame told me that he had dined with A. and given him the
information I had procured for him. He said A. was wretched. Mrs Housman
arrives in London on Saturday. She is only staying till Monday; she then
goes to Florence.
_Friday, October_ 7_th._
Cunninghame told me that Housman has come back to London. They have got
their house back. Mrs Fairburn is in London also.
_Saturday, October_ 8_th._
A. has gone down to Littlehampton.
_Sunday, October_ 9_th._
I went to see Mrs Housman in the afternoon--she was in. She leaves for
Florence to-morrow. She told me she was going to stay there a whole
year. She asked after A. and was pleased to hear he was still in good
health. Miss Housman came in later after we had finished tea.
_Letter from Guy Cunninghame to Mrs Caryl_
LONDON,
_Sunday, October_ 9_th._