2 Earl's Court Square
S.W. 5.
(Still)
28th March 1935
Darling Mary Pleasant,
I went to give my lecture at Paddington to-day but there was only one old woman sitting in the front row. She had been there for three hours and was thought to be dead. So I didn't lecture. So far only one lecture out of six has been given and that to an audience of about four.
I went to the British Drama League to-day. I looked to see if they had any interesting books on "Midsummer Night's Dream" that might help you, but they haven't.
I still haven't had an opportunity to change your token. I took it to the "Worker's Bookshop" today but they could not do it.
It is rather nice having it in my pocket & Knowing that I can get a book whenever I want one.
Nothing startling has happened since last night. No one has fallen out of any trains.
I am looking forward to Madame Reynaud's tomorrow.
I have just written and definitely asked Eileen if we can go there for the first two weeks of September.
Can you come back to No.2 after "Cornelius" and do a German lesson which I am sure you have been neglecting? We might get some cakes and eat them here and boil up some tea on Lamb's ring.
This is the first fine evening I have had for ages. So far I have written five letters. I ought to write to Pauline too but I am fed up with being conversational on paper.
It was very nice sitting next to you at the Old Testament Lecture again. It was ages since we had done it, because last time I was there you weren't.
I loved Miss Cross saying that the Reyneau girl had been broadened by doing the Old Testament. It was because it can have been so true, and most people think of broadening towards the sort of attitude that that Marie already has, & narrowing towards the Bible.
Jack has just been in. He is meeting Mrs Ormo here.
Sometimes as I walk through the streets I think idly to myself 'suppose anything happened to Mary, what sort of type should I marry faute de mieux' and study the various attractive-looking females going past. Directly I look upon them as matrimonial alternatives to you all their superficial attractiveness shows up as completely hollow as far as I am concerned and realise that the only other person who would do would be someone so exactly like you there there would be no difference. Anyone else would bore me to bits.
Now I must go out and post these letters.
Goodnight, dear.
Your loving Terrick
Saturday 28 March 2015
Thursday 26 March 2015
26th March 1935 - Mary to Terrick
O.V.S.
Tuesday
March 26 1935
Dearest Ticky,
It seems a very, very long time ago since I asked Mummy whether she thought it would be proper for me to buy you a birthday present - as I didn't know you very well.- and posted them off to Nice with a sinking feeling that you'd think what a silly present it was.
We were very "Spring-like" in those days - writing nice little letters with clever underlying meanings. I don't think we're quite so nice now - a bit 'hot-housey'. I think - but richer and more verdant. I feel we shall one day arrive triumphantly at the "windswept moor" stage - where everything is firm and clean - but I suppose one can look at it in other lights.
You were very clever on Sunday - I was quite sure I had fallen to the bottom - but just because you pretended I was still standing on the top with you, I thought I was - and it's much easier to think about myself now. If you'd been in the slightest bit jealous or annoyed I'm not sure what mightn't have happened.
I'm not worth very much in the stability line, darling, and if you go to Africa at a week's notice you'll have to put a good strong string round my finger first. It would be very horrible - but very exciting for you.
Perhaps I shall strengthen with the years - so that when you come sailing home with a ring through your nose and a spear in your hand - I shall stand on the quay & shout to the assembled multitude "This is the man I shall love for all my life! Rejoice in the man of my choice, and in the growth of constancy within my heart! Lo, I was as a reed bowed beneath the force of nature, but now stand I strongly & firmly in the faith of my love!!"
- Many, many happy returns of the day - are you greying at the temples yet?
All my love,
Your Mary Pleasant
xxx
Tuesday
March 26 1935
Dearest Ticky,
It seems a very, very long time ago since I asked Mummy whether she thought it would be proper for me to buy you a birthday present - as I didn't know you very well.- and posted them off to Nice with a sinking feeling that you'd think what a silly present it was.
We were very "Spring-like" in those days - writing nice little letters with clever underlying meanings. I don't think we're quite so nice now - a bit 'hot-housey'. I think - but richer and more verdant. I feel we shall one day arrive triumphantly at the "windswept moor" stage - where everything is firm and clean - but I suppose one can look at it in other lights.
You were very clever on Sunday - I was quite sure I had fallen to the bottom - but just because you pretended I was still standing on the top with you, I thought I was - and it's much easier to think about myself now. If you'd been in the slightest bit jealous or annoyed I'm not sure what mightn't have happened.
I'm not worth very much in the stability line, darling, and if you go to Africa at a week's notice you'll have to put a good strong string round my finger first. It would be very horrible - but very exciting for you.
Perhaps I shall strengthen with the years - so that when you come sailing home with a ring through your nose and a spear in your hand - I shall stand on the quay & shout to the assembled multitude "This is the man I shall love for all my life! Rejoice in the man of my choice, and in the growth of constancy within my heart! Lo, I was as a reed bowed beneath the force of nature, but now stand I strongly & firmly in the faith of my love!!"
- Many, many happy returns of the day - are you greying at the temples yet?
All my love,
Your Mary Pleasant
xxx
Wednesday 25 March 2015
25th March 1935 - Terrick to Mary
2 Earl's Court Sq.
S.W.5.
25th March 1935
My Darling Mary Pleasant,
Can you arrange with Madame Reyneau for Friday night? It will be better for me.
To-day South Africa and a better salary has loomed definitely nearer; but I have got to swot like blazes at a part of the tourist business that I know nothing whatever about, as I shall probably have to pass a test in it during the next fortnight - before I can know definitely. Then I may have to sail at a week's notice! I'll tell you all about it on Wednesday.
I must stop now and start learning frontier stations.
I love you.
Terrick
S.W.5.
25th March 1935
My Darling Mary Pleasant,
Can you arrange with Madame Reyneau for Friday night? It will be better for me.
To-day South Africa and a better salary has loomed definitely nearer; but I have got to swot like blazes at a part of the tourist business that I know nothing whatever about, as I shall probably have to pass a test in it during the next fortnight - before I can know definitely. Then I may have to sail at a week's notice! I'll tell you all about it on Wednesday.
I must stop now and start learning frontier stations.
I love you.
Terrick
Saturday 21 March 2015
21st March 1935 - Terrick to Mary
Alexandra Hotel
Gt Horton Road
Bradford
21st March 1935
My Darling Mary,
It is a boiling hot night. Mr May & I have just got back to the hotel from a cinema where we have seen "We Live Again" and a very good Silly Symphony "The Flying Mouse".
I believe I said or wrote to you that it was a miracle that, as I had to do two different jobs, nothing important had been overlooked. Well today the Manager here has said he couldn't do our show and make it pay & demanded compensation. One of his points was that I had not advised him till Feb 26th that I had changed the date of the reunion from 1st March to the 22nd. I felt sure I had but the correspondence was in my bag at the hotel. I hedged off till tomorrow morning till I could check the fact, but inwardly I said to myself "Here is 'the important thing overlooked'".
Directly I got back from the cinema I went up to my room & dug out the correspondence. There was my letter of 7th Dec & his of 10th Dec. definitely fixing for 22nd March!
So the miracle is still going on.
In the train coming up, while May slept, I started "Common Sense About Sex" the book Paul bought. I have already learnt a lot I did not know. It is very sensibly written & I'll bring it to Dunally with me so that you can read it over the week-end. You ought to.
There are so many, many things I want to say to you, to tell you how much I love you, but I cannot put them down because directly I try the feeling comes up in me that I have said much and that now I cannot bear to say anything else until I have done something, done something towards fulfilling or love, marrying you.
Even to say "I love you", makes me feel like a man standing on the bank of a river watching another one drown & calling out "I'll save you, I'll save you" and doing nothing. I am almost ashamed to say "I love you".
Before, I always had the reason for not having made money that I was not sufficiently interested in money making, but now I have a very good reason and by all that's holy I'm going to make enough to marry on if it wears me to a shadow.
If I can do the things the Poly consider me capable of surely I can wring a few hundreds a year more out of this stupid world.
Darling, help me with your influence on me.
Darling, goodbye now till tomorrow night. It is morning and I must get to work.
All my heart is yours.
Terrick
XXX
Gt Horton Road
Bradford
21st March 1935
My Darling Mary,
It is a boiling hot night. Mr May & I have just got back to the hotel from a cinema where we have seen "We Live Again" and a very good Silly Symphony "The Flying Mouse".
I believe I said or wrote to you that it was a miracle that, as I had to do two different jobs, nothing important had been overlooked. Well today the Manager here has said he couldn't do our show and make it pay & demanded compensation. One of his points was that I had not advised him till Feb 26th that I had changed the date of the reunion from 1st March to the 22nd. I felt sure I had but the correspondence was in my bag at the hotel. I hedged off till tomorrow morning till I could check the fact, but inwardly I said to myself "Here is 'the important thing overlooked'".
Directly I got back from the cinema I went up to my room & dug out the correspondence. There was my letter of 7th Dec & his of 10th Dec. definitely fixing for 22nd March!
So the miracle is still going on.
In the train coming up, while May slept, I started "Common Sense About Sex" the book Paul bought. I have already learnt a lot I did not know. It is very sensibly written & I'll bring it to Dunally with me so that you can read it over the week-end. You ought to.
There are so many, many things I want to say to you, to tell you how much I love you, but I cannot put them down because directly I try the feeling comes up in me that I have said much and that now I cannot bear to say anything else until I have done something, done something towards fulfilling or love, marrying you.
Even to say "I love you", makes me feel like a man standing on the bank of a river watching another one drown & calling out "I'll save you, I'll save you" and doing nothing. I am almost ashamed to say "I love you".
Before, I always had the reason for not having made money that I was not sufficiently interested in money making, but now I have a very good reason and by all that's holy I'm going to make enough to marry on if it wears me to a shadow.
If I can do the things the Poly consider me capable of surely I can wring a few hundreds a year more out of this stupid world.
Darling, help me with your influence on me.
Darling, goodbye now till tomorrow night. It is morning and I must get to work.
All my heart is yours.
Terrick
XXX
Friday 20 March 2015
20th March 1935 - Terrick to Mary
2 Earl's Court Square
S.W.5.
20th March 1935
My Darling Mary,
I have just written home and, when I have finished this letter, shall go out & post them & then straight to bed.
This week will be the end of the worst. Next week and afterwards I may actually have more to do but it will be all one job instead of two jobs in different rooms on different floors of the building. It has been too much. I keep having to leave the job in one room to deal with an emergency in the other & vice versa and it has been a miracle that something important hasn't been overlooked.
I have been trying to wangle Paul into the Nice party at Easter, and today a good opportunity cropped up of doing it. I think probably the trick is done but I shall not know for certain for a week or so. We have never repped together yet.
I wish you and the company all the very best of luck in your Fantastic Flight. It is a very ambitious effort as regards producing and stage-managing.
Well, goodnight dear; I am looking forward to the week-end very much.
Mummy says in the letter we got to-day: "We always notice that Terrick has to go to his Mary directly he comes home from anywhere. She has found the cure for his large heart!" It is the first time she has been prepared to admit that it wasn't just a passing fancy with me. I have said that you have found the cure all right; the only snag is the miserable £4 a week.
Goodnight again, darling
I love you so much.
Terrick
XXX
S.W.5.
20th March 1935
My Darling Mary,
I have just written home and, when I have finished this letter, shall go out & post them & then straight to bed.
This week will be the end of the worst. Next week and afterwards I may actually have more to do but it will be all one job instead of two jobs in different rooms on different floors of the building. It has been too much. I keep having to leave the job in one room to deal with an emergency in the other & vice versa and it has been a miracle that something important hasn't been overlooked.
I have been trying to wangle Paul into the Nice party at Easter, and today a good opportunity cropped up of doing it. I think probably the trick is done but I shall not know for certain for a week or so. We have never repped together yet.
I wish you and the company all the very best of luck in your Fantastic Flight. It is a very ambitious effort as regards producing and stage-managing.
Well, goodnight dear; I am looking forward to the week-end very much.
Mummy says in the letter we got to-day: "We always notice that Terrick has to go to his Mary directly he comes home from anywhere. She has found the cure for his large heart!" It is the first time she has been prepared to admit that it wasn't just a passing fancy with me. I have said that you have found the cure all right; the only snag is the miserable £4 a week.
Goodnight again, darling
I love you so much.
Terrick
XXX
Sunday 15 March 2015
15th March 1935 - Terrick to Mary
Leeds Town Hall
15th March 1935
Darling,
I am sitting in the hall of the above listening to a rehearsal & waiting to get on the phone to the leader of the dance orchestra
Just phoned.
All around me are sitting people who are waiting to be called as witnesses in the law courts. The assizes are going on in the courts in this building. Our rehearsal is brightening their faces considerably.
Now we have just been told to keep the doors shut. The noise of the music is percolating into the courts, & the judges don't like it.
I got your letter that wanted "plenty of time" etc, just in one of my busiest moments, as I was packing all the props & had only half an hour to do it before my train went.
But I downed tools immediately I saw it & it made my work a lot lighter to have read it.
Last night all the "circus" went to see "Dirty Work" and "Name the Woman" here in Leeds. "D.W." is not early so good as most of Ralph Lynn's.
This morning we played billiards & did a crossword puzzle before coming to the Town Hall. At present there are six of us. The others are doing other jobs elsewhere or coming from London.
Last night I was dog tired and after we had finished dinner (we went to the cinema first) I went up to bed almost immediately.
It is great fun going about the country like a troupe of strolling actors, - for a bit.
As soon as the rehearsal is finished we are going to lunch. We have just sent three of the party ahead to reserve a table for us at a restaurant. After lunch I shall be hard at work getting everything ready right up till it is time to go to the hotel to change and get dinner before coming back to the show itself. So I'll finish now.
As soon as I get back to London I'll ask for the rise. But it is not much good getting it. It would be only a flea bite compared with what I must have. I must try something outside the travel business.
Renny might join the Thespians. I would if I were any good as an actor.
15th March 1935
Darling,
I am sitting in the hall of the above listening to a rehearsal & waiting to get on the phone to the leader of the dance orchestra
Just phoned.
All around me are sitting people who are waiting to be called as witnesses in the law courts. The assizes are going on in the courts in this building. Our rehearsal is brightening their faces considerably.
Now we have just been told to keep the doors shut. The noise of the music is percolating into the courts, & the judges don't like it.
I got your letter that wanted "plenty of time" etc, just in one of my busiest moments, as I was packing all the props & had only half an hour to do it before my train went.
But I downed tools immediately I saw it & it made my work a lot lighter to have read it.
Last night all the "circus" went to see "Dirty Work" and "Name the Woman" here in Leeds. "D.W." is not early so good as most of Ralph Lynn's.
This morning we played billiards & did a crossword puzzle before coming to the Town Hall. At present there are six of us. The others are doing other jobs elsewhere or coming from London.
Last night I was dog tired and after we had finished dinner (we went to the cinema first) I went up to bed almost immediately.
It is great fun going about the country like a troupe of strolling actors, - for a bit.
As soon as the rehearsal is finished we are going to lunch. We have just sent three of the party ahead to reserve a table for us at a restaurant. After lunch I shall be hard at work getting everything ready right up till it is time to go to the hotel to change and get dinner before coming back to the show itself. So I'll finish now.
As soon as I get back to London I'll ask for the rise. But it is not much good getting it. It would be only a flea bite compared with what I must have. I must try something outside the travel business.
Renny might join the Thespians. I would if I were any good as an actor.
_______________________________
3.30 p.m.
Preparations are in full swing. The hall will look nicer than any of the others. It is a pity the sales are so bad. At Manchester we were overflowing & couldn't seat everybody.
I may possibly get a day or two's holiday after the last Reunion. I shall just about need it.
How is your part going in "Fantastic Flight"? Do you feel satisfied with yourself? If I get the Monday and Tuesday after Bradford off I shall go home from there & shan't see Jack & Jill do their parts.
_______________________________
6.30 p.m.
Must try & post this now. I'll ring you on Saturday about Sunday. I think I'll come to Richmond. It will give us more time.
Love Terrick.
Saturday 14 March 2015
14th March 1935 - Terrick to Mary
Victoria Hotel
Manchester
Early Hours of 14th March 1935
My Darling,
The Manchester Reunion is over. The greatest success, both financially & as an entertainment, of all the provincial ones. Everybody is pleased; and so we go on to-morrow (or rather, today) to Leeds, where on Friday we shall have (financially, at any rate) the worst of the lot.
Since last week-end I love you, if that were possible, even more than before. Because I realise how much you must have loved me to have loved me at all while thinking me, rightly, so selfish where money was concerned.
It was the first time that I had ever become suddenly aware of a great fault in myself. I have thought a good deal about what you said, and the more I thought the more I realise how terrible I had been. It was no excuse to say that I spent all the money I got, because there s no doubt that except where I couldn't help it it has all been spent on myself. But now that I do realise it, my selfishness disgusts me. Ever since Sunday I have been going to the opposite extreme (I have had a good deal of opportunity), but I don't think it is just a temporary reaction. I promise you you shall never feel humiliated because of me again on that score.
Yesterday in the lunch hour I went to see two firms about jobs. One I hope to hear from in about a month's time & the other, though they had nothing, told me of another firm that may have. I don't think there is anything to be made in it.
Darling, I can't do "The Beggars Opera" on Monday. I have a political meeting; will Tuesday do for you?
Manchester
Early Hours of 14th March 1935
My Darling,
The Manchester Reunion is over. The greatest success, both financially & as an entertainment, of all the provincial ones. Everybody is pleased; and so we go on to-morrow (or rather, today) to Leeds, where on Friday we shall have (financially, at any rate) the worst of the lot.
Since last week-end I love you, if that were possible, even more than before. Because I realise how much you must have loved me to have loved me at all while thinking me, rightly, so selfish where money was concerned.
It was the first time that I had ever become suddenly aware of a great fault in myself. I have thought a good deal about what you said, and the more I thought the more I realise how terrible I had been. It was no excuse to say that I spent all the money I got, because there s no doubt that except where I couldn't help it it has all been spent on myself. But now that I do realise it, my selfishness disgusts me. Ever since Sunday I have been going to the opposite extreme (I have had a good deal of opportunity), but I don't think it is just a temporary reaction. I promise you you shall never feel humiliated because of me again on that score.
Yesterday in the lunch hour I went to see two firms about jobs. One I hope to hear from in about a month's time & the other, though they had nothing, told me of another firm that may have. I don't think there is anything to be made in it.
Darling, I can't do "The Beggars Opera" on Monday. I have a political meeting; will Tuesday do for you?
________________________________
Next morning at Breakfast
I have to dash out immediately I have finished, so I'll stop now and write to you again from Leeds.
All my love
Terrick
Friday 13 March 2015
12th - 13th March 1935 - Mary to Terrick
Old Vicarage School
Richmond
Tuesday
I've come to the conclusion that being in love can be compared with running in a steeplechase - except that the competitive spirit is practically absent. Everybody has their own special course and they all run side by side starting from where you think you've fallen in love and running straight on until you die. You both set off on beautifully, smooth, weedless green turf, holding tight to the reins and feeling a bit self-conscious because you've never ridden before - and the hedges that divide you from other people doing the same are high, so you don't see them. And as you do cantering along (sometimes, when occasion demands, breaking into a trot of a gallop) the turf gets a bit thin and dead in patches, or you have to jump small ditches of water and recover on the other bank, having had a nasty shock in the process. But the going improves again and you decide to stick a bit closer to the person trotting beside you in case he should have an accident and to prevent yourself having one. And then you get married and the hedges between your course and those of your contemporaries get lower and lower and you discover they're cantering or galloping just like you are - only perhaps some of them have rougher patches of turf on wider ditches of water; and some get left behind and some try to gallop too soon, and some just stand still on a nice green patch and ride their horses round and round in a circle.
Some courses are untidy and dead and full of little ditches and little jumps - and some are smooth and green for a long, long way with suddenly big ditch or a big jump - and some of the courses have been followed so often that the ditches are dry & the jumps are worn down, so its just ups and downs which make you decide its wiser to walk separately along each edge and take no notice of each other.
And we all go trotting gaily on and pick ourselves up and brush bits of grass off our clothes, and laugh at the funny sights we must look and feel much better fr the jolting - and the turf seems greener and smoother and our neighbours fade into nothingness - and we get off our horses sometimes to make the journey last longer - and when the next ditch comes we courteously help each other across and have left it far behind in the distance before we realised what a wide one it was.
Amen
Wednesday
I went to a rehearsal last night so couldn't apologize for my lengthy and somewhat involved prologue. All I can hope is that you get this when you've got a nice lot of time and patience upon you.
We all reminded each other that the performance was on Friday week last night and consequently they've put rehearsals on Monday, Tuesday & Thursday next week - so I'm afraid it rather knocks our Monday evening out, But I'm coming up on Sunday to one from 2.30 - 6.30 with a gap until 8.30. If I get the car can I come and see you for an hour at Earl's Court? - or don't you think it would really be worth it - and I might impede your feverish typing!
I forgot to ask you last weekend how the Communism had gone? Did you go round with your pieces of chalk at dead of night? I went Bill sticking last Thursday at 11.30 for the B.D.L. thing.
We had a wonderful evening on Monday at "Lady Precious Stream" - I loved it - I want to go again and take Mummy. Do you know anything about the P.N.T. run by Nancy Price? I should rather like to join.
The Thespians are thinking of doing "Fresh Fields" in May - but we're simply dry for anything young in male form - I suppose Renny wouldn't join?
Well, I shall miss you this evening but I will try and make do with Mr Lees. I hop you get this because I don't a bit know when you leave Manchester.
don't work yourself to death - and don't forget to ask for the rise! Am getting on with the postponed German lesson and I love you very much.
Yours
Mary Pleasant Ormiston
xxx
Richmond
Tuesday
I've come to the conclusion that being in love can be compared with running in a steeplechase - except that the competitive spirit is practically absent. Everybody has their own special course and they all run side by side starting from where you think you've fallen in love and running straight on until you die. You both set off on beautifully, smooth, weedless green turf, holding tight to the reins and feeling a bit self-conscious because you've never ridden before - and the hedges that divide you from other people doing the same are high, so you don't see them. And as you do cantering along (sometimes, when occasion demands, breaking into a trot of a gallop) the turf gets a bit thin and dead in patches, or you have to jump small ditches of water and recover on the other bank, having had a nasty shock in the process. But the going improves again and you decide to stick a bit closer to the person trotting beside you in case he should have an accident and to prevent yourself having one. And then you get married and the hedges between your course and those of your contemporaries get lower and lower and you discover they're cantering or galloping just like you are - only perhaps some of them have rougher patches of turf on wider ditches of water; and some get left behind and some try to gallop too soon, and some just stand still on a nice green patch and ride their horses round and round in a circle.
Some courses are untidy and dead and full of little ditches and little jumps - and some are smooth and green for a long, long way with suddenly big ditch or a big jump - and some of the courses have been followed so often that the ditches are dry & the jumps are worn down, so its just ups and downs which make you decide its wiser to walk separately along each edge and take no notice of each other.
And we all go trotting gaily on and pick ourselves up and brush bits of grass off our clothes, and laugh at the funny sights we must look and feel much better fr the jolting - and the turf seems greener and smoother and our neighbours fade into nothingness - and we get off our horses sometimes to make the journey last longer - and when the next ditch comes we courteously help each other across and have left it far behind in the distance before we realised what a wide one it was.
Amen
Wednesday
I went to a rehearsal last night so couldn't apologize for my lengthy and somewhat involved prologue. All I can hope is that you get this when you've got a nice lot of time and patience upon you.
We all reminded each other that the performance was on Friday week last night and consequently they've put rehearsals on Monday, Tuesday & Thursday next week - so I'm afraid it rather knocks our Monday evening out, But I'm coming up on Sunday to one from 2.30 - 6.30 with a gap until 8.30. If I get the car can I come and see you for an hour at Earl's Court? - or don't you think it would really be worth it - and I might impede your feverish typing!
I forgot to ask you last weekend how the Communism had gone? Did you go round with your pieces of chalk at dead of night? I went Bill sticking last Thursday at 11.30 for the B.D.L. thing.
We had a wonderful evening on Monday at "Lady Precious Stream" - I loved it - I want to go again and take Mummy. Do you know anything about the P.N.T. run by Nancy Price? I should rather like to join.
The Thespians are thinking of doing "Fresh Fields" in May - but we're simply dry for anything young in male form - I suppose Renny wouldn't join?
Well, I shall miss you this evening but I will try and make do with Mr Lees. I hop you get this because I don't a bit know when you leave Manchester.
don't work yourself to death - and don't forget to ask for the rise! Am getting on with the postponed German lesson and I love you very much.
Yours
Mary Pleasant Ormiston
xxx
Sunday 8 March 2015
8th March 1935 - Terrick to Mary
2 Earl's Court Square
S.W. 5
7th (now the 8th) March 1935
My Darling Mary,
It is now past twelve o'clock. I meant this letter to get to you tomorrow morning but I have been out so it will have to catch the first post in the morning.
Yesterday got a letter from one of the family friends in Wimbledon, one of the girls who asked me to a dance in January, saying she some friends were going in a party to a dance at a club in Earl's Court on Saturday & would I come. I wrote that I couldn't. this afternoon a phone call came for me in the office when I was out to ring up Mrs Dunn in West Kensingston. I didn't know the name & the fellow who took the message seemed very vague. I was so rushed in the office that I forgot all about it, only remembering when I got to Hyde Park Tube station. I tried to ring up from there but found I had forgotten the number, only remembering the name and West Kensington. I started to look through all the Dunns but found it would take too long. So I went down the tube, got into the train, sat down & decided to start reading. I found I hadn't got my book. I had left it in the phone box! The train hadn't started so I went all the way up the escalator again. The book was still there. I got home at last, and with the aid of my postal district maps & the phone book found six Dunns in West Ken. No coppers. I put on a coat, went out, got change & phoned. I started with the number I thought most likely & said it was T. FH calling, very tentatively. Fortunately I was right first time. It was this girl who had asked me to the dance staying with friends in W. Ken. Could I come to the dance after the Reunion. No. Well would I come round & see them. So I did, it was only the next station & in the end four of us went to "The Little Minister". I was sorry I saw it with them as it was just the sort of film we ought to have seen together. Just the right amount of sentiment and nice talk about "true love" etc. Quite a good Silly Symphony too "The Tortoise & The Hare". Afterwards I had to go & drink tea at their flat & have just got back. The Dunns are rather nice.
Darling, Paul & Brenda have just bought their house & want to spend Sunday afternoon in going over it again. Could we go & see it with them? Paul is very anxious to show it off.
I can't go home after either the Leeds or Bradford Reunions as they can't get me back to the station on a Sunday.
Dear, old thing, are you going to miss any more O.T. lectures? Because unless they are as interesting as Job I shall miss them too. Will it miss up your grant if I do? In any case I shall miss next Wednesday's.
You light up my life, dear. Not only just brightening it but bringing out dim corners of it that had never seen the light of day before, that I didn't know were there. I suppose love does that for everyone. Though I look at loving couples and cannot believe that they have anything worth giving each other.
I hope I give you as much as you give me. Babbie in "The Little Minister" in telling him about her falling in love with him says "I knew I could never be entirely unhappy again". And I know that I have ever been even approaching the slightest unhappiness since I fell in love with you. The nearest I got to it was at being kept away from you on the Riviera for so long.
But ordinary worries don't affect me at all. In business if things go wrong I quite surprise myself at feeling so unperturbed - even for me who am not ordinarily perturbable. And I know it is because there is something so important elsewhere in my life - You - that these other things seem very small. In you I am so happy that I don't mind other things going wrong, and in you I could be so unhappy that beside that unhappiness all others are flea-bites.
It's a great life, darling; and all will work out well!
Love me and I'll love you and our three-score years and ten will slip by. Instead of being a necessary evil to go through and get over they will be a pleasant memory even in the hereafter (assuming one for the sake of argument). I don't think that life was really meant to be happy and being happy may distract us from paying life the rent we owe it for our room on earth, but still -
Darling, I love you.
Terrick
XXX
S.W. 5
7th (now the 8th) March 1935
My Darling Mary,
It is now past twelve o'clock. I meant this letter to get to you tomorrow morning but I have been out so it will have to catch the first post in the morning.
Yesterday got a letter from one of the family friends in Wimbledon, one of the girls who asked me to a dance in January, saying she some friends were going in a party to a dance at a club in Earl's Court on Saturday & would I come. I wrote that I couldn't. this afternoon a phone call came for me in the office when I was out to ring up Mrs Dunn in West Kensingston. I didn't know the name & the fellow who took the message seemed very vague. I was so rushed in the office that I forgot all about it, only remembering when I got to Hyde Park Tube station. I tried to ring up from there but found I had forgotten the number, only remembering the name and West Kensington. I started to look through all the Dunns but found it would take too long. So I went down the tube, got into the train, sat down & decided to start reading. I found I hadn't got my book. I had left it in the phone box! The train hadn't started so I went all the way up the escalator again. The book was still there. I got home at last, and with the aid of my postal district maps & the phone book found six Dunns in West Ken. No coppers. I put on a coat, went out, got change & phoned. I started with the number I thought most likely & said it was T. FH calling, very tentatively. Fortunately I was right first time. It was this girl who had asked me to the dance staying with friends in W. Ken. Could I come to the dance after the Reunion. No. Well would I come round & see them. So I did, it was only the next station & in the end four of us went to "The Little Minister". I was sorry I saw it with them as it was just the sort of film we ought to have seen together. Just the right amount of sentiment and nice talk about "true love" etc. Quite a good Silly Symphony too "The Tortoise & The Hare". Afterwards I had to go & drink tea at their flat & have just got back. The Dunns are rather nice.
Darling, Paul & Brenda have just bought their house & want to spend Sunday afternoon in going over it again. Could we go & see it with them? Paul is very anxious to show it off.
I can't go home after either the Leeds or Bradford Reunions as they can't get me back to the station on a Sunday.
Dear, old thing, are you going to miss any more O.T. lectures? Because unless they are as interesting as Job I shall miss them too. Will it miss up your grant if I do? In any case I shall miss next Wednesday's.
You light up my life, dear. Not only just brightening it but bringing out dim corners of it that had never seen the light of day before, that I didn't know were there. I suppose love does that for everyone. Though I look at loving couples and cannot believe that they have anything worth giving each other.
I hope I give you as much as you give me. Babbie in "The Little Minister" in telling him about her falling in love with him says "I knew I could never be entirely unhappy again". And I know that I have ever been even approaching the slightest unhappiness since I fell in love with you. The nearest I got to it was at being kept away from you on the Riviera for so long.
But ordinary worries don't affect me at all. In business if things go wrong I quite surprise myself at feeling so unperturbed - even for me who am not ordinarily perturbable. And I know it is because there is something so important elsewhere in my life - You - that these other things seem very small. In you I am so happy that I don't mind other things going wrong, and in you I could be so unhappy that beside that unhappiness all others are flea-bites.
It's a great life, darling; and all will work out well!
Love me and I'll love you and our three-score years and ten will slip by. Instead of being a necessary evil to go through and get over they will be a pleasant memory even in the hereafter (assuming one for the sake of argument). I don't think that life was really meant to be happy and being happy may distract us from paying life the rent we owe it for our room on earth, but still -
Darling, I love you.
Terrick
XXX
Wednesday 4 March 2015
4th March 1935 - Mary to Terrick
O.V.S.
Monday
8.45
You must forgive any seeming incoherence in this - but 5 children and myself have spent from 10. this morning until 5. discovering the many interests of Windsor Castle & Eton College - and since then have completed an hour's lantern lecture with sausage rolls & fruit salad to end up with. - They've just departed to bed and I feel like the piece of a sausage roll one tries to leave.
I have been looking forward to this moment all day. I planned it this morning in bed.
How did the Communist meeting go? I wish you'd go & punch Lamb's fat head. If one can warrant for Mummy's anecdotes (which I think are fairly reasonable fundamentally) he considers your communism a mere outlet for emotionalism which will pass - and puts it in the same category as "you and me" - which attachment, he considers, will also pass with time as we're both far too much alike! - Of course patches where one does resemble another person have to be rightly handled, and then they can become the best of blessings and I'm absolutely magnificent at collect "handling" - Tell him he's a platitudinist without experience!!
Would it be all right if we arrived about 8.30-9. next Saturday? - Because we're dropping Sibyl & husband in town and Johnnie & Jack & I planned to come on afterwards - it will be fun even watching the mobs "uttering their deal of stinking breath" and we shan't have to sit there so long without seeing you! Make sure about Paul's party & evening dress will you? - Because it'll be awful to turn up clad versus their unclad.
Did you send me "The Lake"? - I've had a .c. from Thespians this morning - inviting me there for the reading on Wednesday and saying "Any friends who are interested are also invited" - "Light refreshments" - Won't you come too? It'll be as dull as ditchwater, listening to multitudes of bad readers, but you can spare an O.T. lecture, can't you? & it would be wonderful to have you there, instead of being separated by 100 yds of road with half our thoughts off what we're doing.
If you will come it really does away with drastic need for having supper at Codena on Wednesday - But it would still be very nice - and you can continue my lecture on Communism to your heart's content!
Write to me tomorrow - oh curse, of course, it's Bradford - but if poss, just a p.c. to let me know.
They've cast me for Oberon - quite bucked. One or two wonderful compliments paid me by complete strangers - (my poor head!)
Woeful weekend without you - and the family spend the time when you're not down making silly jokes about us - Hodson & friend made me sick - so did Jill.
All my heart and longing - because I love you so very much.
Your
Mary Pleasant.
Monday
8.45
You must forgive any seeming incoherence in this - but 5 children and myself have spent from 10. this morning until 5. discovering the many interests of Windsor Castle & Eton College - and since then have completed an hour's lantern lecture with sausage rolls & fruit salad to end up with. - They've just departed to bed and I feel like the piece of a sausage roll one tries to leave.
I have been looking forward to this moment all day. I planned it this morning in bed.
How did the Communist meeting go? I wish you'd go & punch Lamb's fat head. If one can warrant for Mummy's anecdotes (which I think are fairly reasonable fundamentally) he considers your communism a mere outlet for emotionalism which will pass - and puts it in the same category as "you and me" - which attachment, he considers, will also pass with time as we're both far too much alike! - Of course patches where one does resemble another person have to be rightly handled, and then they can become the best of blessings and I'm absolutely magnificent at collect "handling" - Tell him he's a platitudinist without experience!!
Would it be all right if we arrived about 8.30-9. next Saturday? - Because we're dropping Sibyl & husband in town and Johnnie & Jack & I planned to come on afterwards - it will be fun even watching the mobs "uttering their deal of stinking breath" and we shan't have to sit there so long without seeing you! Make sure about Paul's party & evening dress will you? - Because it'll be awful to turn up clad versus their unclad.
Did you send me "The Lake"? - I've had a .c. from Thespians this morning - inviting me there for the reading on Wednesday and saying "Any friends who are interested are also invited" - "Light refreshments" - Won't you come too? It'll be as dull as ditchwater, listening to multitudes of bad readers, but you can spare an O.T. lecture, can't you? & it would be wonderful to have you there, instead of being separated by 100 yds of road with half our thoughts off what we're doing.
If you will come it really does away with drastic need for having supper at Codena on Wednesday - But it would still be very nice - and you can continue my lecture on Communism to your heart's content!
Write to me tomorrow - oh curse, of course, it's Bradford - but if poss, just a p.c. to let me know.
They've cast me for Oberon - quite bucked. One or two wonderful compliments paid me by complete strangers - (my poor head!)
Woeful weekend without you - and the family spend the time when you're not down making silly jokes about us - Hodson & friend made me sick - so did Jill.
All my heart and longing - because I love you so very much.
Your
Mary Pleasant.
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