26th August 1935 - Terrick to Mary

35 Nevern Square
S.W.5


26th August 1935


My Darling Mary,

To wish you Bon Voyage!  Doesn't it sound odd when you're coming instead of going.

You seem to have had a wonderful time in Berlin.  I should think your summer holidays 1935 are the most varied & eventful you have had yet: Schwaneberg, Zehlendorf, the Lakes, & finally Home.  You are lucky!  Still, even my fortnight is the nicest I have ever had.

I don't expect I shall be able to have supper with the family unless they are prepared to have it after 8 o'clock.  I am working till 8pm tomorrow (Tuesday) & probably on Wednesday too.  Those stupid, helpless, ignorant fools, the Poly clients, are all sending in the most unreasonable complaints that in reality only show them up for the brainless, gutless, insular, vulgar sheep that they are.

My quarrel about Eileen was over her visit to England, nothing to do with me.  It always seems that when I quarrel it's over someone else.

The reason why the teeth wouldn't catch the film is that you didn't hold that little catch back in the absence of the bit of bus ticket (not blotting-paper).  I hope you stopped immediately it didn't catch (if it was in the middle of the film), otherwise the films are scratched like my Nice one.

I have never seen Günter spelt like that!

"Love" was probably a contributory cause of my being snappy.

Be careful with the exposure meter, won't you.  I wish I hadn't left you with the responsibility of it.

Oh, darling, I am looking forward to having you near me again!  You make more difference than I really like to admit to myself.

My next word to you will be on the platform at Victoria station.  In the meantime know that I love you, and that every mile - or every kilometre - you come nearer to me my heart will be beating faster to think of it; and tomorrow night in bed I'll think of you in the train (Don't let the Aumunds take you to Zoo Station; there are no corner seats left by the time the train gets to there).

Here are my blessings on the trains and the boat, even on the Poly clients who will be on the same service from Cologne onwards.

Till Wednesday evening, sweetheart.

Look after yourself.

All my heart

Terrick

25th August 1935 - Mary to Terrick

Berlin - Yehlendorf

Saturday evening


Darling - thank you for the letter and money.  I have spent it all already!  I'm the limit - but I hope I shan't need any more, except for registering my luggage - and that I can borrow.  Only 3 more days!! 75 more hours and I shall see you again!  It's wonderful. - And apparently Auntie Maggie & family are coming to lunch - so all the family will be up to meet me at 9.40.  I do wish there wasn't such a long journey all by myself - I shall hate it - But then, of course, I've been so spoilt up till now.  Do you think you could manage to write me a nice letter by Air Mail (which I shall get at 6pm) to cheer me on my way.  This is my last letter to you - isn't it? t seems a pity - because we write such nice letters to each other when we're a long way away.

I haven't been up in an aeroplane yet - because Elaud couldn't take me this morning - but I think I am going tomorrow afternoon.  We went out to tea yesterday with Claud, Jolst, Iruni, and Tony - and Elaud said the three bodies they had to dig out from the Funktum fire looked just like roast chickens - so I've been thinking about them ever since.  The 20 men have not been found yet so all this week there's solemn music on the wireless - no dance music - it seems strange, doesn't it?

The party on Friday evening was a great success, they put me next to Tony, thank goodness, and I had to sit at the head of the table for dinner.  It was very funny - and they drank my health- and later in the evening I showed them the films, which were much appreciated.  I found the bit of blotting-paper keeping the catch back had fallen in - and I couldn't get the teeth to catch properly - so I expect it's cause and effect - only I can't get it out and the teeth worked in the end - so you must see to it when I get back.  We're longing for tomorrow evening when my Aumund film will be ready.  I think the end of it should be alright, although I made such a hash of the beginning.  How is Mr May getting you over the J.B. Studios? - You're jolly lucky.  I had a letter from Jill yesterday & she said she'd met in the Kings Head the Bodker family - & the man the elder daughter had married (Passmore) was making a film at Walton & Jill had been over and watched them shooting part of it.  So you ought to ask her if she couldn't introduce you or something!

Yesterday morning Iruni & Tony took me to Berlin shopping in the new car. It was jolly nice of them - except that I felt a bit of a raspberry - or gooseberry - all the time.  They didn't make me feel like it - I made myself.  I find latterly I have become hyper-sensitive to couples!  They hurt me on the films - and produce such a mixture of feelings inside me in reality that I want to sit down and weep!!

I've finished "Sons & Lovers" - and the latter part was much more up to standard re "passion"!  A bit too much so, I consider - but perhaps it was because he was describing the passion of a male! -

"He watched the movements of her arms and shoulders beneath her flimsy muslin blouse"! "He sunk his mouth on her throat"! - "His pulse beat thickly"! - Have you ever felt your "pulse" beat thickly? - oh - yes, and "Her beauty made his head spin and a wild longing took possession of him" - (in a tram - mind you!).

I think I must go to our book shop and buy another for my return journey.  I'm reading a very nice Thomas Hardy at the moment.

Günter (two dots quite correct - only no "h") & Frau A. took me to Sans Souci & Neues Palais this morning - as Inge has to work most of Sunday. - It was strange seeing it all again - and I went in the Neues Palais this time.  It was very like Sans Souci - the most magnificent walls, ceilings and floors. - But I thought, all the time, how much nicer was Sans Souci with you - than Neues Palais with Günter.  I seem to miss you everywhere I go.

It is quite hot here too - I am amazed it's still hot in London.  I have had another long-long letter from Eileen - which I will show you when I get home.  She says your mother has written to say she thinks you would have done better to spend your holiday at Wensley as you look so thin.  Is that what you had the argument about? - I think I shall have to see that you get some milk all through the winter.  I thought of it last term - but now I shall definitely arrange it!! (Please excuse possessive tone - I'll alter it when I get back!).

Eileen says they all miss us goth tremendously - which is nice.

I had a letter from Mummy too - re subject - quite a  nice one.  She says she was in quite a good mood for once when she spoke to you about me - and was surprised you took it so seriously - But I know how she puts things - not meaning to sometimes.  I think it must have been mostly a misunderstanding.  It's on these occasions that I loathe Jack most - he always puts his spoke in & makes me boil.  However Mummy is getting very excited about our holiday together and has quite the false idea that you were snappy through "love" - so we'd better let sleeping dogs lie, and all will be well.

I regret to inform you that "Dick" fell off the table by my bed yesterday and has lost an ear - but as "Dof" is minus an antler, they're now both as silly as each other.

I have also had an unexpected long letter from Norah - very nice - The wedding apparently is at St Mary's with Mr Bernays (feelings mixed).  There are going to be 6 bridesmaids.  The other five all go from Maida Vale (where they have a new flat) to church in one car.  But I (if you please) accompany Nora & Mr E. in their car!! - I shall most certainly beak down before the ceremony commences!  The business now belongs entirely to Teddy & herself - & she is already in charge of the whole financial side!  It's amazing.

But I think the wedding ought to be quite fun.  I hope she remembers to invite you - so that I can feel all the time that we might be doing the same some day! (If nothing else dies, this will positively cause me to weep copiously into font!)

It's getting very dark and chilly out here in the garden - and I'm afraid - Dear Heart - there's no more news.

I loved the bit in your letter about my brown coat - (but you know I would!).  Perhaps soon - who knows? - you will be really lying your head on my "comfortable bosom" again.  I'm longing so terrifically for Wednesday that Monday & Tuesday will stay for ever.  I'll get as near the front of the train as possible.  You might  'phone my family and arrange to meet therm somewhere - perhaps for supper first.

And then I shall see you on Thursday again for the whole evening - oh, darling.

I love our Berlin - our Cologne - our Aachen - our Ostend - and our Dover (I hate Victoria, for reasons best kept to myself!)

But best of all, darling, I love "Us" - because we're such friends as well as lovers - and better than anything in the world, my Very Dearest Dear, I love you.

I.L.Y.W.E.B.O.M.

your

Mary Pleasant
                      xxx

25th August 1935 - Terrick to Mary

35 Nevern Place
S.W. 5

25th August 1935

My Darling Mary, 

Only three more days now.

At the last minute I didn't have to go to Boulogne, so I was here when your letter arrived.  The photographs are very good aren't they?  I had already seen them as a matter of fact, on the day we left Schwaneberg.  I got my copies from Eileen on Friday & have sent them home for my father to see.  I don't suppose you want me to send yours back, do you?  I'll  keep them till you come.  I think I am going to ask Eileen to let me have the one of her with the buck & the one of her, Derek, Bodil & Heinrich in the matt surface as at present they are glossy & don't go with all the others.

Your last letter was opened by the censor.

I shouldn't let the Aumunds get your mother a camera.  You'll never get it through the customs & the duty of photographic articles is terrific.  Did I tell you that I saw the Tempophot Exposure Meter in London for £3. 15s. 0d?  Is there room for it to lie under the camera in the case without making it look funny.  Still, the camera case is so old that I don't suppose it will occur to anyone to look into it.  They didn't when I came back from Nice.  Anyhow put the German instruction how to use it in your handbag.  If they are not there it might have been bought in England.

Yesterday afternoon I went to see "Der Schimmelreiter". It is very good indeed but the end they make a man explain in words instead of showing it in pictures which weakens the force of it.  The hero was the hero of "The Blue Light".  "Turkey Time" was in the same programme.  Very funny but very artificial after "Der Schimmelreiter" (The Rider on the White Horse).

Aunt Mildred, just before leaving for Auchen, sent me a card to say that "Robert does k now something about what we were talking about", which was getting an introduction to someone in the film world.  So I am writing to him to-day.

Yesterday I typed out "Murder at the Dinner-Table, a radio play by Mary P. Ormiston & Terrick FitzHugh" and stored it in a case with my Collected Works.

The play plot I thought of on my way back from Bournemouth was apropos of my mother's pathetic belief that "common people" are naturally - not merely socially - inferior to "gentle people".  The plot is about a Earl of somewhere who is engaged in a dispute with his tenants, one of whom, the stupidest and most uncultivated of them all, turns out to be his own half-brother, by an affair that the late Earl, their father, had with one of the village maidens.  The Earl, who is himself rather a stupid man & thinks socially like my father & mother, puts things right in his own mind by thinking that the utter un-couthness of his half-brother is due to the fact that his mother was a working-woman.  He is, however, shocked out of this comfortable belief by finding that the village girl had her revenge by changing the babies and that he himself is her son, while the uncouth uncultured labourer is the some of Lady Daphne de Montmorency-Coucy etc.

This brings home to him the for-some-people unwelcome truth that it is only their environment, upbringing and education that give them, average specimens of their class, their superiority to the average specimens of the working-class.  And being an honest man he wishes to give up his title and wealth to their real, & wronged, owner.  I may prevent this actually being done - it is the conviction only that matters - by making it further transpire that the late Earl had secretly married the village maiden before his engagement to Lady Daphne & that therefore it is he, the rich man, who is legitimate after all, & the labourer, though Lady Daphne's son illegitimate through being born of a bigamous marriage.

You see, on the framework of a well-worn melodramatic plot: the substitution of a rich baby for a poor one, I am putting a theme of real social truth.  Of course the "social truth" is as old as the hills too, but it hasn't yet been heard of by people like my father & mother, none being so deaf as those who won't hear.

It will all need a lot of turning over in my mind & thinking of in bed in the morning before I can see my characters and scenes properly.

I have found an old M.S. of "Menter's Conscience" which I can usefully compare with my half-finished new one.

To-day is lovely: sunny but cool, Yesterday and the day before we had some terrific downpours that cleared the air.

What sort of things do you think you are right about, and Jack wrong?

I am so glad the film was good.  It was a panchromatic.  I am dying to edit it; Yes, we must do it together.

It doesn't matter your taking Inge having breakfast after she drove off on her bicycle.  We'll edit.

Sunday Evening

I have spent a peaceful but fairly busy afternoon, getting ready material for "Robin Hood" and studying the Abyssinian question in the Observer and with maps.  I don't suppose you know the latest news, do you?  It is quite on the cards that we may go to war against Italy, but personally I think it is bluff on our part to make our eventual concessions look more desirable.

On Thursday, will you come to dinner here? Our seats are reserved for "Love on the Dole" so we don't need to hurry.  

I suppose this will be the last letter it will be any use sending, as you'll be leaving Berlin on Tuesday evening.  Still I might get one more in.

I got a letter from Jill on Friday.  There doesn't seem to be any friction.  Any how, if there is, I'll have plenty of time to eliminate it while waiting for your train.  Try to get on the first train; there will be sure to be several. I shall be dying to see how you are looking and if you are wearing your German mackintosh.

I am looking forward to seeing Dick.  Is he fat? That's what the word means in German.

Of course, you don't pay for the developing of the Schwaneberg film.  That is my job.  How many reels are you taking of the Aumunds?  Just the one?

You look very nice just a foot away from my nose dressed in Grecian costume.  But you must come with me to Le Dernier Cru & have a really slinky one of you taken, showing you for the sophisticated vamp you are.  But wait till I have finished the Schwaneberg film & can afford to have my eyes done so that I shan't need to be photographed in y glasses.  I wonder if I shall look like those photos I had taken in 1928.

Oh darling, I do miss you.  You are definitely a part of me now and I limp and grope without you - sometimes.  I am quite a different person from what I was up till the time I knew you. Now I'm more brought to earth and also to one spot of earth than I was.  Funnily enough, I think your family have had an influence on me.  At least not they as individuals, but my having a family life (practically every weekend) that I like has made a difference.  It is a good thing for you I think, that influence on me; but not perhaps so good on me.  What I mean s that it has made me into a better prospective husband, but not a better cog in the world machinery.  It is a taming influence.  But I may be wrong in attributing it to a family influence, perhaps it is just me growing old and losing my ideals, letting them be choked in the nice luxuriant comfortable weeks of a family life of my own in prospect.

Perhaps you don't see what I mean.  I am not very clear myself.

Well (as Renny would say), I must stop now and write to Robert about a film job.  If wonder if that pompous little ass really does know something that will lead me on the road to fortune and happiness. If he does I'll promise to try and think better of him from then on.

Did I tell you that Uncle Val wrote from America that in a little while it might be worth my while to go round to Raymond & Whitcomb again & ask for a job.  They were the American Company that were going to start me at £5 a week and my keep when I was only twenty-two.

Something is coming, dear, I feel it in my bones.

At the moment, though, all I can look forward to is your coming.

I'll be on the platform, my dear.

When we are married, I shall do my very utmost to see that married life is for you as happy as married life can be.  I love you very, very much.

Terrick  XXX

The stamp machine had no 1d stamps so I'll have to put on 8 halfpenny ones!  The stamps themselves will probably make it overweight.

22nd August 1935 - Mary to Terrick

Zehlendorf

Thursday - August 22nd 1935


Dearest Dear - Thank you for your very nice letter which I had a breakfast-time this morning. So you see how wonderfully quick Air Mail is!  It makes me feel much nearer to you.  The comment on my last letter is gratefully accepted - but I think perhaps you might have found something original on the spur of the moment!

Yesterday we called for your film of Schwaneberg which they informed us they couldn't transfer to the smaller spool as it would mean doing it by hand. So I brought the spool home with me and did it yesterday evening.  I think it's on with the end at the beginning - but it doesn't matter, as you've got to cut it up.  We ran it through twice last night (with the film of Inge which arrived at 6p.m) - It is very good indeed except for Herbert getting up from the breakfast table, which is a bit dark.  Herbert in the yard is good, Herbert & Eileen - very nice indeed - the new motor tractor - excellent - with complete Russian touch behind as you took the earth being turned up (my suggestion!!) - and the long stretch of road is good too.  I'm simply longing for you to start putting it all together - can I help  you sometimes?  They enjoyed the film of Inge - thank you very much for getting it here.  I'm not nearly such a good operator as you - I fiddle for hours - then sit and think - then say "All right" - and in total darkness find I haven't screwed the handle on!  And as for taking a film!! - We got the new one yesterday and I very cleverly put it in.  We decided to take the whole thing today and try and get it developed in time to show them.  I wrote out a beautiful scenario with beautiful L.S. - M.S. - 18" - all written after it - got up early to take Inge before she went to school - and so far have been an absolute fool over everything.  I took the front of the house - put on the 18" - and took the "Aumund" name plate - too Inge coming out of the gate and getting on to bicycle - with the 18" on!! (what will happen?) - Then I took Inge having breakfast with Greta coming in and going out (in the garden) but the bally thing ran down in the middle!! (I didn't know you had to wind it up every time) - and also, I now realize, on consulting my scenario for first time, that Inge shouldn't depart for school and suddenly be found sitting down to breakfast!  Darling, I'm afraid your wife will be more of a hindrance than a help in the film world!! - But I'm awfully good at pulling the legs out of that little black stand thing!

You are a goose putting the 2.50 onto my £1- I don't want you to pay for it - but I just wondered if that was right!  I haven't paid for anything yet and I shall owe you pots of money as it is.  In fact - I am terrified you're spending this week on tea and currant buns just for me - so if you've lost your Shchwaneberg rosy freshness and overwhelming energy by the time I come home I shall be forced to regard myself as a "gold-digger"!

The Aumunds are really being too good over the money business - they've insisted on buying me a lovely black mackintosh like Gunther's with clips down the front, because I looked so nice in his when I tried it on! - and Frau Aumund is going to send Mummy back a camera like Inge's I think - although I keep on telling them it's silly. - I simply shan't have enough room for my things to come home - the projector is a case in this respect - & Mummy's basket & my mackintosh - I shall look like Cicily Courtneidge in "The Ghost Train" as I get out at Victoria! (Do you remember seeing it at Fort William?)

Yes, it was a pity about the Radio Exhibition as I was going up to the top of the Funkturm on the day it happened (not the only reason it's a pity of course!). Bland has been sent up from his labour camp to clear away the debris & he thinks it will probably be all right for me to go on Sunday.  I'm going up in the aeroplane with him on Sunday too, I think.  I shall be absolutely terrified and probably be sick out of the window - but it will be a jolly good experience.

They've also had another nasty accident with the new underground railway - the tiergarten side of the Brandenberger  Tor. - the road fell in and has entrapped about 20 men.  They couldn't find them all yesterday but men from the Ruhr coalminers were flown over to try today.

Thank you for news about Abyssinia - I'm really very interested - although I was pulling your leg.

Yesterday morning Gunther drove me up to see the Pergamom Museum - while he went to the police record offices for Grannie (I've had to write to her for birth place & date of birth before they can do anything) - I was very interested to see the further end of the Unter den Linden and we watched the tail end of the Changing of the Guard.  I wandered round the museum by myself for and hour - and quite enjoyed it.  But I wished you'd been there to explain things.  I liked best the models of Babylon, Milete and Pergamom - some magnificent detailed carving on stone pillars - yellow & blue tiled walls which had led up to the house of Nebuchadnezzar II - the Egyptian mummy cases (are there really bodies in them?) - Nefertiti's head (simply beautiful) and some lovely illuminated pictures & lettering from old books - oh - and some writing on papyrus scrolls.  So you see I saw quite a lot - and was glad I went.

In the afternoon Inge & I went out in the canoe again and wrote a list of all we had to do - and when we were going to do it.  Tomorrow we've got a party here in the evening .  Saturday we're going to do all my shopping in the afternoon (with part of your £1!) - and something super in the evening with Inge's friend Iremy (don't know how you spell it - perhaps you do) and her English fiance who have just come back from Birmingham.

On Tuesday on the Wannsee we paddled round to see the place where we had lunch with Eileen & Herbert that first time on our way to Potsdam - & where I took your photograph - it was very funny to see it all from the other side.

The Old & Young King which I saw with about 400 of Inge's school on Wednesday morning at 8am was quite good - perhaps understanding the words makes it more moving (because they all cried!).  Emil Jannings was very good. But I didn't quite agree with the psychology part of it - although I suppose it's all historical.  have you got something about them in a book? Because I should like to read up the story (the cut the most "touching" parts too - because of the children)

I have had another long letter from Jack - a bit stupid in parts - but he always makes me wonder if he's right - or if I am - and I hate wondering because I'm usually so sure I am!

He, Paget & Jill coxing won silver cups at Sunbury Regatta - junior sculls - so they were very bucked.  I wish I'd seen them.  He also said Auntie Maggie, Uncle Frank & Babo (Mummy's sister from Radlett) were coming to dinner next Wednesday evening - so I don't know if they'll all be coming up to meet me - I expect one of them will anyway.

I'm in the middle of "Sons & Lovers" now - and am distinctly disappointed in D.H. Lawrence because he is so "pure"! - It's quite a good tale of Derbyshire coal-mining district - with country-folk falling in love and growing up etc:! - I thought he was a wonderful blood, thunder, dirt & passion write with deep phylosophy (spelling?)  - Perhaps I've got the wrong book.

I should love to come and see "Love on the Dole" with you - if it really comes to that in then end! - It's a pity it's on the first evening after I get home because I feel Mummy won't be too pleased - but I've told her already and hope she'll be coming up to the office that day so that I can do something with her first.  It will be lovely to walk along a pavement with you again and to hold your hand when we cross roads.

The first thing I have to do when I get home is to take out my £15 and pay all my debts.

I get very sleepy here, and I don't sleep very well (an unheard of thing for me!) - perhaps it's because we're low - is Berlin any lower than Walton?

Fancy running into Marie! - I should rather like to see them again, wouldn't you?  And Hodson has promised to ask us to dinner & show us the new flats - so we shall have quite a lot to do together, which will be lovely.

It's a pity about Mummy & the German - especially as I can't tell how she's feeling now and I should hate it to go on until I get home.  If you can possibly do something about it - even if it means a bit of an effort - you will, won't you?  I love doing German - so you can set your mind at rest about that - not even you could prevail upon me to undertake something which entails such a tremendous lot of work unless I wanted to.

- Letter from Mummy just come in!!! - All newsy and very nice - nothing about German - looking forward to your coming down the weekend after I get home - makes me feel like a cad for calling her an ass yesterday! - Suppose she posted it before phoning you.  Can't understand it quite.  Must write to her again. - but will keep off subject.

- Oh, I wish I could fly home now instead of having to beat round and round with this letter business.

Let me know about things soon, darling - you're very kind writing so quickly.

- I.L.Y.W.A.M.H.

very dearest dear - 

Mary Pleasant
                     xxx

22nd August 1935 - Terrick to Mary

35 Nevern Place
S.W.5.

22nd August 1935


My Darling Mary Pleasant,

Here is a traveller's cheque for 20 Rm plus 2.50 for the film developing.  I hope it will be enough.

Our rep came back to-day & he says he posted the film in Cologne last Saturday (I think).  I hope you have got it by now.  I have just had one developed at Selfridge & all the exposures look perfect except (inexplicably) the one of Eileen coming out of the house to pick flowers.  I seem fated not to get that one.  This time it is far too dark.  I have just given in another one.

Mr May is arranging for me to be taken over the Gaumont-British Studio at Shepherd's Bush soon.  I'll try & vamp someone while I'm there.

The weather gets hotter & hotter.  I have changed into a cricket shirt & flannel trousers & am sitting at my desk between the two windows both open top and bottom.

By the way, I see from the travellers cheque lying beside this page that they have gone & printed your name as Orminston.   You will have to sign your name properly though or it won't agree with your passport.  If they raise the point tell them it is a mistake and stress the fact that there is no such name as Orminston, or they may think you have bagged some-one else's cheque.

Oh No!  It'll be all right.  I see they have the number of your passport on the cheque.  As long as they haven't made a mistake over that.

Just before dinner I moved your brown jacket that I brought from Germany.  I smelt it to see if it smelt of you, and it did very much.  I thought for a minute that I had my head buried in your comfortable bosom & was lying in the garden at Schwaneberg.

This evening I got a whole lot of photographs from Eileen, from her negs, yours and also enlargements from Bodil's!  I hear she is so frantically busy preparing for the wedding that she can't get into Berlin.

I told you I believe that I had thought of going to the six-hour performance of "Man & Superman". Well I saw it started at 5pm. so that was no good.  Yesterday, it being very hot & I feeling fed up and at a loose end without you, I went up to town at about 8.15 on spec.  I want to see "Tovarich" so I tried there first, but it was standing room only, so I went on to the Cambridge Theatre & saw the ordinary performance of "M&S". It was totally unlike any ordinary play, being chiefly talk by a man who was practically Shaw himself but all the time it was interesting & amusing though it never deceived one into thinking it had ever happened or ever could.  I wished you had been with me because in many ways you were very like the heroine & I rather like the hero - you know, gesticulaty; and the bits on marriage at the end would have made you roar.

Sorry I was rude to your mother, but after chatting so amicably on the phone with Jill, it absolutely took me by surprise when your mother started off.

My ink is running out.

L.M.A., A.I.S.A.L.Y.

We are such great friends besides being lovers, aren't we.

Its your turn really so excuse my not writing more.

All my Love

Terrick
              XXX

21st August 1935 - Mary to Terrick

Germany

Wednesday


- Darling - I'm sorry I have to be so often apologizing for the behaviour of my strange mother. - I feel, if I were a phsyco-analyst (sic) I might find some connection between her outbursts in a common emotion - but I'm not - so the first thing is that she must be treated civilly.

You know as well as I do that she gets to a point where she doesn't think at all about what she's saying because she's carried away by the feeling underneath.

She can't have thought at all lucidly about that sentence in my letter - but it just struck her what a lot I said about you - & what a lot we seemed to have to do with each other - and it rubbed her the wrong way - (at least, I feel this must be it).

- The offending sentence was pure swank on my part.  I love feeling virtuous - and I knew "2 hours" sounded magnificent.  Only I didn't explain how easy it was to look up words - learn verbs and write sentences etc. sitting in a comfortable chair in the garden in the sun! - and I knew that the main reason I enjoyed it so much was because I wanted to show off to you when I got home! - 

Perhaps I was silly say all this to Mummy - I must remember her kink!

- But I really enjoy it - or else (being Mary) I certainly shouldn't do it!

(and can you see me ill!!!!)

- Dear old thing - I'm very sorry about it - it's amazing how little things can blow into balloons!!

- Perhaps you'd better be a bit cross with me for not knowing my own silly mother better!

- Darling - I.L.Y.T.

Mary P.  xxx

P.S. I regret to state my knowledge of German language at present is not worth the price of 3 Air Mail stamps.

P.P.S.  Film hasn't arrived yet.

20th August 1935 - Terrick to Mary

I can't quite imagine you in the green & brown.


35 Nevern Place
S.W. 5

20th August 1935


My Darling Mary, 

Your letter arrived this evening just before I went out to dinner with aunt Mildred.  It is the nicest I have ever had - several have been lately.

Darling, I didn't know you really hated German, or even that you disliked it much.  Perhaps, being so intent on teaching you it, I projected my own interest in it too much on to you.  Of course don't learn it if you don't want to.  I was thinking particularly of the time when you would be Frau Kühne's in-law & might use German a lot.  Anyhow, you have very much a will of your own & I think I can trust you not to be "put upon" by me; though your mother doesn't seem to.

To smooth things over with Mrs Ormo I have pretended that we were cut off (on the phone) by accident, so don't say I rang off, will you.  I could tell her the truth & say I was sorry but - apart from that not being much truer† than what I am saying - I know that directly we started discussing I should get angry again. 

†It is true really because I ought to have been more steady than to let your mother annoy me & also I am sorry to have quarrelled with her in the abstract, even if I can't quite be sorry about the actual moment.

It is boiling hot here.  I am sitting in my room with very little on writing as much as I can so that I can send this off tomorrow.

You do seem to be having a lovely time.  Hearing of all the places you are going makes me absolutely writhe to get away to you.

I haven't been anywhere since I have been back, but I am thinking of trying to get a seat for the six hour version of "Man & Superman".  Do say you can come to "Love on the Dole"!

How lovely about Bodil's letter & Inge's comments!  It isn't just guessing.  It is sometimes quite true that onlookers see most of the game.  Look how we saw far more of the Renny & Joan affair than Renny even could.

I shall put in for your £1 tomorrow & send it as soon as it comes through, probably on Thursday.

"The Embassy" has still got "Edwy".  I will send "The Slug" out again somewhere this week.

Thanks for your warning about the job.  As a matter of fact early yesterday evening looking through the Telegraph advertisements I was thinking I apply for all sorts of jobs that I should hate.  Just out of impatience.

Re Abyssinia (don't think I don't see that you were really pulling my leg) (just in case you don't see) (as you often don't) wasn't it about this time last year that I said we should have war in a year's time.  Now I make another prophecy that you won't find in the papers for a while.  Italy will probably start fighting Abyssinia but rather than let them get control over Lake Tsana, the British will arrange for them to "buy" Mozambique from the Portuguese - and also that Germany will later get Angola, also from Portugal.

So sorry that you and Gunther (no dots over the u - not in Luftpost) have had such a bother about the film.  I hope you have got it straightened out now.  I'll let you have the 2.50pfn with the £1.

I must read "The Man Who Was Thursday" again.  it is about eight or nine years since I read it all through & I didn't understand it, I remember.

I see your Radio show has been burnt down.  I bet they blame the communists!

Thank you for Dick, I shall treasurer him for ever.

Yesterday I went to the Poly Institute to get particulars of their course in Cinematography, but it turns out that one has to be in the trade & recommended by the Cinematograph Association before one can take it.  I was going along that way again to-day when who should I run into but Marie Reyneau (or whatever the name is).  She and another girl were looking for the American Consulate.  She asked after you & invited us both up.

I wish I had a lot of interesting experiences and events to relate to you in return for all you tell me.  Did I tell you that South Africa house has nothing to do with appointments to private films only to government jobs of their own & they are always given to residents of South Africa.

Just after I got back to England I went along to the new "Drama League" building at the top of Tottenham Court Rd to take back the Shaw books.  I decided to lunch up there & went into an Indian restaurant.  After a very good but stinging hot meal of mulligatawny soup, egg curry and a queer but delicious sweet, I found I hadn't enough money on me to pay for it.  When the waiter came along with the bill I sent for the manager & explained the circs.  I said I would pay next day & in the meantime would leave something as security.  The manager, an Indian (all the staff were Indians) wouldn't hear of it.  He wouldn't even accept what money I had on me, saying that I might need it.  As the only thing I had to leave was my gold watch which was out of all proportion to the debt I did not press him.  next day I went back & paid him and had another lunch there.  He came & talked to me & showed himself a most cultured & interesting man.  I shall certainly always lunch there whenever I go to change my books.

Jill is in the throes of getting a passport.  I sent her the form this evening.  She sounds very excited about the journey.

I must stop now, darling, and go to bed.  I don't dream of you because you are not only in my subconscious mind, but well and truly in my conscious one too.  I expect our having to wait to get married is really rather good for us.  We are slowly, like a bridge, building closer to each other from different sides of a river, and when we are married we shall really meet in the middle.  Oh dear, for the present it will be enough for me when we meet on Victoria Station - tomorrow week!  What a pity there will be so many of us there.  I wish I could get down to Dover but I can't.

All my swelling heart of love.

I.L.Y.M.T.A.I.T.W.

Terrick   XXX

Kindest regards to the Aumund Family

19th August - Mary to Terrick

Yehlendorf

Monday

Dear Heart - the sky is as blue as blue with little white puffs of cloud - the sun is "bullig" but there is a nice little breeze and an aeroplane buzzing in the distance.  It is the first hot day we've had for a week, so I'm sitting in that long chair in the garden having just read your letter - and feeling a bit guilty because writing to you will upset my two hours German for this morning!

It was a very nice letter - and I've read it twice.  I'd a jolly good mind not to make any comments on it because all you said about my work of art and pages of news was that it was satisfyingly fat on the outside!  Never mind, you made up by telling me a lovely lot of news yourself.  I'm sorry you didn't go to Dunally because they were all longing to hear about everything - but I expect your mother enjoyed having you at Bournemouth - did you go down on Saturday afternoon and back on Sunday?  Poor old Renny!  I roared with laughter over Joan and her sadist - are there really people like that?  I don't think that can be all true.  Perhaps he'll fine someone else at Bournemouth.

I've had two lovely letters from Eileen & Bodil - Bodil's was 6 pages!! - and made me laugh a bit - I must show it to you when I get back - all about how wonderful she thinks you and I are in loving each other like this! - Funnily enough Inge told me the same thing yesterday - she thinks I'm the kind of person who will always be faithful - it's rather strange.  Looking at your own love through other peoples' eyes - because they can only be guessing.

Eileen's letter ended up - "With best love, old thing", which made me feel quite homesick for Schwaneberg again. That my kind and gracious Eileen should call me "old thing" like a friend, was just too much for me!!

I've had letters from Mary Hicks - whose father has retire from the University and bought a Road House - 16th century building - at Henley-in-Arden - 6 miles from Stratford.  Hickie loves it - we must go & see her one day - and, this morning, a letter from Andy - very nice.  We only meant about your "not having time" for a letter - that there hadn't been enough time for you to get home & write one, for me to receive it.

We've had an awful bother over the films - ending in the photograph shop threatening to call the police to throw Günther out last Saturday!  We took them on Monday - and they said tree days.  They were finished on Saturday evening - but they've put the developed film on too big a spool - and they'd forgotten to order the new one! - so Günther is going specially up to our shop in Berlin today to get them to change the spool & to get a new film.  It is sickening - because I wanted to take it over this weekend.  The developed one looks quite good at the beginning - but I haven't unrolled it far - I'll tell you about it when the spool is changed.  They charged 2.50 for developing - is that right?

I have done a frightful lot since I last wrote.

Wednesday - tea with Erika & wicked old German with white beard who spoke perfect English - knew a lot of dirty jokes of England 1902 - 9 and discussed the state of English novel writing since the war & lent me a book by Michael Ailen to see for myself.  I've read it - it's very queerly written about most awful people having bald conversations and peculiar operations & sleeping with each other all over the place - & there's a word I must look up when I get home - but it's the kind of book you had to finish & couldn't put down in the middle.  Inge has a "Father Brown" which I've read since then - lovely - & I'm just going to start "Sons & Lovers".  "The Man who was Thursday" is perfect! - never shall I forget the wonderful messages Sunday threw from his fire engine and balloon!  But I don't quite understand it - will you explain it to me one day?

On Thursday, Günther took me to a Tea-Dance at the Europa Pavilion - we went up on the roof first & looked at Berlin all the way round.  It was very interesting because they had very good "turns" in between each dance - but there were too many people to dance properly - who, Günther said, were mostly up from the country for the day.  It will never cease to amaze me how the German cafés, hotels & restaurants - (thousands of them) are always full! - not only on weekends - but all the week.  I know our restaurants are full every day - but we go there just because we must have tea somewhere - But these people go up specially to these places to dance and watch a sort of cabaret in the middle of the day - and they're all full again in the evening - it's amazing.

(I'm now going onto the back of the pages)

We got home at 7.30 to change - eat quickly and back to the Kürfurstendamm Theatre to see "Veronika" - a fairly good comedy.  I didn't understand much of the words but it was fairly easy to follow.  The funniest & most unexpected people were there - lots of "old-fogeys" - and I was about the only person who looked as if they'd troubled to change or even do their hair for it!  Günther drove me round that bit of Berlin afterwards to see the lights & people - but I felt like shutting my eyes because I hate seeing it all without you.  It doesn't seem fair, somehow! & not a bit the same.  Günther is very good-mannered and helpful - but I think he's a bit full of himself and very uninteresting.  Inge's much the nicer type.

On Friday, Frau Aumund & I went to the "Sommerblumenschau" and enjoyed it very much.  Th flowers were all a bit spoilt by rain & not a patch on English shows for variety - but we went all round it in a little scenic railway which was lovely - and went into one of the industry hoses there where wood & basket work was shown - (some lovely things) and Frau Aumund bought a lovely gardening basket for Mummy - she wouldn't let me pay - But it's so big I shall have to carry it home! - (Don't tell Mummy, will you?) & I bought two wooden animals like reindeer with the "dumm"est faces - called Dick & Dof" (by me) - you can have "Dick" when I get home to stand on your mantelpiece to look at when you feel "dumm" - and I've also go you another present which was the only excuse Inge & I could find for going into a most lovely & expensive shop to look at things when we went shopping together in Berlin on Saturday afternoon.  She's a very nice person to go shopping with & we both enjoyed ourselves - it's a pity I haven't got £1000 to spend.  We finished up by going to the Gloria Palast to see "Amphytrion" - the funny film of the moment - about Jupiter & Mercury coming down from Olympus to Greece for a few days to have a good time with the women before the men come back from battle. - It was very well done - especially the scenes on Olympus & Mercury descending to earth by his umbrella, with roller skates on his feet!

We got back to find that Elaud had phoned up just after we'd gone to ask us to go with another boy to a dance at the "Rotweiss" Tennis Club! - But he's going to see what he can do for next Saturday!  He's a very nice boy - I like him more every time I see him - so nice and sincere and straightforward & humorous.

He came with us all & another boy (in uniform - with a long sword!) to "Marquart" yesterday - 10Km: from Potsdam - owned by Kempinski - the most marvellous house & garden swooping down to the lake - a perfect place - Hundreds of people drive out there on Sundays - we danced again and had tea & took photographs.

Next week we are having about 10 people here for a kind of party - Günther & Inge sped the time arguing over who's nice and who'd nasty!

Tomorrow I am getting up early with Inge & going with her school to the local cinema to see "The Old & the Young King" - but I've got to look like one of them as she's wangling me a ticket!  I want to see it badly - & they all get in for 15 pfennigs!

I'm afraid I'm getting very fat with all these indulgings - I hope you'll recognise me at Victoria!  Oh, Ticky, only 9 (triple underscore) days!!!  How ever much of a lovely time I have all my life, I shall always long desperately for the moment when I get back to you.  I am doing quite a lot of German - & I should love to go on with the Grammar part with you next term if you'll have me, will you?  I've also started translating "Little Lord Fauntleroy" from German - but it's very stiff work! - & I still can't say anything properly.

It's Norah's birthday on Sept 1st (Sunday after I get back) - and all the bridesmaids have got to meet together to discuss things.  I hope it's not all day because of you being at home for the weekend - but perhaps she'll ask you too.  Mummy's sent me the (new page) pattern of the material for my frock - which I'll put in this for you to see - I smiled when I saw it because it's just the two colours you can't stand together! - However, doubtless you'll deign to speak to me in it! - with brown hat, shoes & gloves I think.

Thank you for the time table & R.M. Form.  I do hope we get in on time to Victoria - I expect they'll all come up to meet me from home - Oh, it will be wonderful - Darling - darling - darling - you can't imagine how "England" creeps in my bones - how "home" appeals to my comfort & satisfaction - and how "you" - my very dearest of dears - live inside me and all round me - & I think of you so often that it seems as if you're really here all the time.

Love me always, as I shall always love you - your
                                                                         Mary Pleasant  xxx

P.S.  Air mail letters posted here before 7 a.m. get to London at 1.p.m. the same day - or posted before 11.35 a.m. to London by 5 p.m. - This also applies from London to here.  But if saving the £1 - it doesn't matter!!

Could you manage to see Mummy sometime - when she's in town perhaps? - she'd love it.

I.L.Y.S.M.I.C.B.!

MPO


P.P.S.

Dear Ticky

I'm so sorry - I meant to start off this letter so beautifully with - 

(1) Have you heard anything about "Edwy"? - Was it lying there glassily for you when you got back - & what about the Sloth-Slug, I mean? - Let me  know

(2) What are your opinions, at the present time, on the political situation in Europe? - I'm afraid it would be a little dangerous to air my biased views here, as the letters are often opened - But I am looking forward to a deep and valuable discussion when I return.

Mary P Ormiston


oh - sorry

(3) have you had your hair-cut?

Frau Aumund got your letter & they were all very surprise that there wasn't one mistake!  I read it too - but I liked the "Terrick FitzHugh" at the end best.

Have just thought, old thing - be very careful you don't take a job you're going to hate - will you? - I thought perhaps these "Times" adverts & wanting me so badly - you might.

18th August - Postcard from Terrick to Mary

Just got back form Bournemouth.  lovely day.  Same hotel as before - the Hawthorns.  Will you come to "Love on the Dole" with me on Thursday 29th?  I have got Complimentary Tickets for that evening.  in the tube coming home from Waterloo I thought of a jolly good plot for a play.  Your photos were very good.  I must have copies of some.

Only ten days till I see you.  I.L.Y.  Terrick

16th August 1935 - Terrick to Mary

35 Nevern Place
S.W.5
16th August 1935

My Darling, 

As I came back here late last night after dinner & a cinema with Mummy & Renny I saw a fat envelope lying on the hall stand.  Without waiting to take my key out of the lock I pounced on it & felt it's nice satisfying fatness.  I just remembered to shut the door, but not to take my keys out; so this morning I couldn't find them anywhere.  This evening, quite by chance, I discovered that someone coming in at about midnight had found the keyring in the door & had handed it in to Mrs Snook.

I find I miss you terribly.  In business I keep thinking of you, & of what we'll do when you come back.  I realise how nice and at peace in myself I was a Schwaneberg because you were there to turn to always.  Now my mind keeps wandering off to you & to dreams & memories of you because it knows that it can't just wait till I've finished what I'm doing & then express itself directly & naturally to you yourself.

When did you get my letter?  You said Frau Professor said: perhaps I hadn't had time to write.  When I first read it I thought she meant because I might be too busy doing other things.  Surely you didn't think that: because,  you know, I sat down & wrote to you at the first possible moment I could grab: Monday evening.  However when I read it a second time I thought perhaps she might mean: had I had time to get back to England & the letter to get back to you.

I enclose a form for getting registered Marks.  Please fill it all in except the amounts & I'll send you as much as possible.

I am not going to Dunally this weekend after all because my mother wants me to come for one of the next three week-ends to Bournemouth, and I can't go next weekend because I have got to do the Special Train at Folkestone, and I don't want to go the week-end after that because you will be here.

So I am going to go tomorrow.  My mother is treating me to it - in case you think I'm spending all my money on frivolity when you might need me to send more than I actually shall.  (I'll send a quid all right.)

I enclose the time-table this time.

The film went off by our conductor yesterday.  he may post it either in Assmanshausen or Berlin.  Have you had the other one developed yet?  I'm dying to know if it's good.  I have given one to Selfridge to be done.

Dinner with my mother was somewhat spoilt by another quarrel over Eileen.  However, we soon forgot it & enjoyed the film "Star of Midnight" (William Powell) very much together.

Renny has given Joan up.  He lent her £2 for which she gave him an I.O.U. (!) with a promise to pay on 15th August.  She now says she can't.  She has got another man, who is a sadist (one who enjoys inflicting pain).  He thrashes her with a rhinoceros hide whip, and makes her wear sandal when they go out to dinner or lunch together, so that he can trample on her feet under the table.  And she likes it.   Ugh, degenerate couple!  Renny has seen her sandals with blood on them.  She may of course be pulling Renny's leg, but I can quite believe it of her.

All this in confidence, of course.

This evening I got your card, for which thanks.  Don't give up swotting German.  You'll never have such a good opportunity again.

How, old thing, could I tell you in my last letter much "home news about Renny & Joan & the Office etc"?  I had only seen a very sleepy Renny sitting up in bed at 11.30 for about twenty minutes, & the Office - well, I didn't want to think much about the office after such a holiday & when I was writing to you.

Frau Aumand specially told me to take the "M" but & not "T".  She's crackers.

I'm glad you like "The Man Who Was Thursday".  I thought you would.  I must read it again.  I have already read it one & a half times.

My shaving mirror works very well, thanks.  My face is getting so like a baby's bottom that people look at me twice in the street.

I must stop now.  Mummy brought me two advertisements from "The Times" which I am going to answer.  I don't think I have written so many letters (business ones excepted) in my life as this week.  I hope Frau Professor has got my German one by now.

There is no good my sending this letter by airmail as it can't be delivered before Monday morning.

I.L.Y.V.M I.

Ich habe Dich lieb (same as "Ich Liebe Dich")

Love me always, as I shall always love you.

Terrick    XXX

15th August 1935 - Postcard from Mary to Terrick

Sorry it isn't the Brandenburger Tor - - but it's the best Zehlendorf could do - and I thought it might fill in a gap between letters - because the gaps are very big  arn't they?  did you get my Air Mail letter safely?  I hope you weren't disappointed at not having to pay overweight on it?  Have a good weekend - and think of me some-times - I wish I was with you.  Getting on quite well - bit tired of German.

- But I.L.Y.

Mary P.
         xxx

14th August 1935 - Mary to Terrick

Berlin

Wednesday 
August 14th 1935


My very dearest dear - it's so difficult to start and put things down on paper to you when I've been used to having you with me and being able to say anything that came into my head.  I think were were both a bit spoilt having such a wonderful 14 days together.  But the good thing about it is that we both realize how lucky we are - I find the only part of it which leaves a lasting ache behind is that such perfect times should come and go and that we cannot live forever!  (which is a very Mary-ish ache!)  I am so afraid was shall look back when we're old and be sad because such times are gone for always.  Do you think we shall? - or does something inside us help us to forget the magic longing and exultation of finding oneself nearly one with somebody else?  Of course I know that deeper things take its place, but I do hope it won't hurt me to look back.  It won't you, but I'm a bit silly that way - arn't I?

You know how badly I had wanted to cry last Saturday, because you were going? - Well, as I saw you sliding away from the platform all I wanted was to be sick! - I knew all the way home and in bed that if I could have cried, my tummy would have stopped aching - but I couldn't - I just ached and ached until I went to sleep - wondering if you were trying to go to sleep too - and if your tummy was aching - & rather cross because your photograph sat there looking at me and pretending to be like you - when it wasn't a bit!  And in the morning I woke up and thought "That's a very good photograph of my dearest dear - I hope he's missing me - I'm glad the Aumunds are so nice - I must really try and get better at German because Ticky wants me to - I'll do two hours a day - it's a very nice morning - which frock shall I put on - and I'm going to have a very nice two weeks with the-person-I-love-best-in-the-world on the platform to meet me at the other end!"

So here I am really having a wonderful time.  Schwaneberg is a hundred years away - and when I want anybody to discuss things with I discuss them with you - and you always give just the answers you would give - and I say "Don't be so silly - it wouldn't" - or "Perhaps you're right - I'll try it".

Sunday was a beautiful boiling hot day.  We had breakfast in the garden, and Inge and I sat out there afterwards - Inge working - and me using my new vocabulary book - just cooking in the sun.  In the afternoon Inge, Elaud and I took our bathing costumes and tea down to the Waannsee - got the canoe out of the boat-house - (in which Inge and I tried to change modestly into our bathing costumes in front of about 30 men helping out with the boats)  and then set off with Elaud (in a beautiful white linen suit) paddling - and Inge and I lounging among cushions under a broiling sun surrounded by holiday craft of all kinds.  We passed the special bathing beach which was unbelievably crammed with motley crowds - hundreds of women and children simply take their frocks off and sit in their petticoats and hats!  Inge was slightly ashamed of them all (she things the English people are a much better shape!) and Elaud wanted to blow them sky-high with a bomb - a somewhat youthful idea for removing the eye-sores of this world!  We paddled a long way - and Inge and I got out and bathed form a patch of sand where there was nobody else.  It was lovely - then we ate our cakes and I . and I paddled slowly back again.  The sailing yachts - hundreds of them - in the evening light were magnificent - and even the madding crowd took on a more peaceful hue.  We took Elaud home - he's a very nice sincere poetry-reading lad - and saw his flat - and he said he'd like to come up in the aeroplane with me when I go, as he's never been either.  After supper I sat with Inge in her room - she practised the piano and I did my knitting.

On Monday morning Inge was a school again - a very hot day - Professor Aumund took me shopping - to the photograph shop - the film will be ready tomorrow - and to the hair-dressers where they spoke English.  They did my hair quite well for 3 marks.  The professor also said he would show me the "Rathaus" - which I was sure was something to do with bicycle storage - & couldn't think why we had to see it.  However it turned out to be quite a new noble building, and I think it's very muddling they way the pronounce their "ds" as "ts".  I try saying something now and again - but I usually have to repeat it in English for them because my pronunciation is so bad.  But my vocabulary is getting better - I find your influence works more strongly the further away you are - (influence for the good I should say).  Frau Aumund asked me yesterday if I had had a letter - and when I said "no" surprised me by saying "I suppose Terrick has not had time to write yet" - heaven knows what Inge must have explained to them about us before we arrived!  I told them about your journey etc when I got your letter this morning.

On Monday afternoon I went to watch Inge's class on the "Sports "Platy" - it was too hot for them to do much - but they looked very nice in their black knickers & running vests - spear-throwing and long-jumping.  At 5 O'clock her friend Erika came for us and we all went off to bathe in the Krumme Lanke.  Erika is 20 - good-looking - and very nice and quiet.  We went to the special bathing place (quite a long walk through woods) and there were a lot of people there - but nice diving-boards and we sat a long time in the sun afterwards and talked half English - half German.  I enjoyed it very much indeed - back to supper and knitting and bed.  I believe we are going to tea with Erika this afternoon.  When I'm old I shall never go out to tea with anyone if I can help it, I think it's a beastly habit.  (I now leave out the word "grown-up" when I'm talking to you owing to your hollow mockery of same!).

Yesterday it rained gently all day.  I had a letter from Grannie in the morning with particulars of her advertisement - and I wrote to her and Jack & Miss Olsson, and did my German.  Do you know what "höschblats" (?) and "stopfen" are without thinking hard?  I do.  In the afternoon we read and at 5 o'clock Frau A. and I set off for Thiel Platz and Wittenburger Platz to buy two umbrellas and go to the pictures.  I thought of you all the way - and us setting off together on Saturday.  A "T" bus goes to Onkel Tom's Hutte - we took an "M" - and I regret to inform you that our little pink tickets would have taken us all the way to Berlin!  Kadewe didn't look quite the same without you  - nor did the trams and taxis look so friendly - and I couldn't even imagine the desperate man running round the corner with a gun to shoot you dead with screams from the count and the woman on the other side of the road!

We spent half an hour in an umbrella shop as Frau A. couldn't make up her mind.  In the end I decided for her and we took a taxi to the Berlina Str: to a small cinema which was showing a film with Renate Müller & Luis Trenker called "The Secret of the Matterhorn" - It was quite an old one apparently, by the shortness of the frocks and "firemen's-ness" of the hats - The make-up was dreadfully bad and the indoor scenes pretty forced and Victorian-novelish (the band-conductor was used again as a detective plus a moustache!).  - But the mountain pictures were simply perfect.  - marvellous show and ski-ing and about 50 men on skis hunting for a body with flares in ice caverns and over miles of snow - the photography there was wonderful - its a pity they'd put in a story at all.

We saw a good news - with Goebbels talking to 1500 school-boys in a voice we should use to lead troops into battle!  All German orators seem to get more worked up than ours - don't they? - and also an American version of "The Little Red Hen" - or was it the Walt Disney "The Wise Little Hen"? - However, it wasn't a patch on the Disney - like a paper book after a leather-bound! - a rather cheap copy, you know, with dreadful American voices.  I wonder Disney allows them to do it - perhaps he doesn't know!

We came out at 8.45 and were home by 9.30.  Gunther had arrived - and clicked his heels together at me and bowed low.  He's very nice too.  Much better looking than the photographs and seems quite keen on planning things for me to do.

But today it is pouring - and teeming - and pouring with rain and looks as if it will go on for ever.  When your letter came by the 11.0 post I thought I should burst with excitement.  It was so nice to see your dear old writing on the envelope - and when I opened it I had to sit for a moment with my eyes shut - so that I could see you lying under the tree at Schwaneberg telling me the stories of your past loves!  You looked very nice like that, and I can remember just how I felt.  It was a lovely letter and I laughed all to myself in the right places - oh! I wish I'd been with you - as Chesterton says in "The Man Who Was Thursday" It may be conceded to the mathematicians that 4 is twice 2 - but 2 is not twice one - two is two thousand times one - that is why the world will always return to monogamy".  I can exactly picture you when you were accosted by "Poly" clients!! - I know your "aristocratic" look so well!  it's a pity you got into Victoria so late - because I thought of you all at the wrong time!

You didn't tell me much home news about Renny and Joan and the office etc:

Have you sent off the film yet? - and by now - I hope you're not worn out.  Next one won't be so long because there won't be so many days in between.

Inge sends her love - and Frau Aumund has told me to "schreiben" her "grüsse" to you

- and as for me - if I could send myself for two hours, I would, although that would be a rather selfish way of doing things - for now we have a chance of leaving the first hour out of it all together - and I send you every part of me that thinks, and hopes, and believes, and loves.

Yours, 

in all sincerity

Mary Pleasant

I shall sleep on page 10 - it as so "tummy-ache-ish"