The Daily Express named the wrong ‘peer’s daughter’ and had to pay £1,000 to Deborah for compromising her prospects of marriage.
Susan do come back. No Susan. Well Susan if anything happens don’t forget there is a spare room here (£4.10. bed).
Love from Sue
Darling:
Thank you so much for your lovely long letter. I am so terribly sorry for Muv over everything and I do not blame her for not letting Debo come.1 It is obviously no good to argue that no one need know she has been here. I have left it and did not answer her letter at all because I could not think what to put; but I answered her long and marvellously ausführlich [detailed] letter about her visit to Decca, without mentioning Debo’s visit.
I suppose they will let them be married and I suppose it is better so. Apparently (the Wid rang up and told me this) poor Muv is again plunged in melancholy gloom.
In the mean time the Kit and I spent the long Easter weekend here in a sort of delirium of happiness. You know how that sometimes happens quite unaccountably. We were so happy, the weather was so fine, the landscape so beautiful, the horses such fun, the flowers so pretty, our walks and rides so delightful, and the food so delicious, that really it seemed like Heaven on earth.
I was depressed last week about the Debo thing (as I expect you noticed in my letter) and so it was all the more lovely in a way. After all, my darling Kit is more to me than all the visitors who are not allowed to come here.
You will see from the enclosed Private Document that Beckett & Joyce2 have been too vile for any words. All the others (102 of them) have behaved nobly and written the most wonderful loyal letters etc, but these two are really disgusting rats. I am sending it to you so that if anyone of importance asks you will know the facts. Keep it carefully or send it back.
Do write all about Frank,3 I am sure he is frightfully marling [embarrassing] but I expect he has got a personality – in fact of course he must have. Mr Holme4 wrote me a very terrible marling letter which I must answer.
How LOVELY the new Führer-stamps are. Oh darling I wish you were here there is so much to tell & to hear.
All love Nardy
Darling Boud
Jung va ja leddra.1 I’m glad the stockings are useful.
Your letter is really so extraorder, on reading it over again I can hardly believe you wrote it yourself, it’s so unlike you. However I suppose my good Boud has been changed by recent events.
It’s really hard for me to describe how Aunt Iris & everyone reacted to your scramming, as you ask. You see I didn’t return until after they first heard of it, & when I saw them they were mostly only thinking of the poor Fem & Male & how miserable they were & how they could possibly comfort or help them. But the vile Aunt Weenie2 was heard to remark that it would be better if you were dead! But I know she thinks that about Diana & me too, & has probably often said it.
Boud how extraorder of you to say did I know that Muv went out to see you, of course I knew, a) because otherwise how could I have sent you the stockings and b) there was a terrific family conference about it beforehand, & no-one talked of anything else, & at first the idea was that I should go too, of course I wanted to awfully to see my Boud, but then it was decided that as Esmond is by way of hating the idea of me so, it might do more harm than good. So I came here instead, in the new car Farve gave me.
I met the Führer by great good luck last Tuesday, I was driving along in my car & met him at a street corner driving in his car, he hadn’t known I was back & seemed very pleased to see me & got out into the street to speak to me & everyone rushed from all directions shouting ‘Heil!’ when they saw him. He asked me to go back to tea with him & I followed his cars to his flat & sat with him for 2½ hours alone chatting. He wanted to hear all about you & what had happened since I saw him last. He had forbidden it to appear in the German papers which was nice of him wasn’t it – at least perhaps you won’t think so as Nancy says Esmond adores publicity. However he got enough of it in other countries.
I think Rodd was boring about the whole thing, right from the beginning he wanted to arrange everything & adored it, & he was dying to be the Heroic Brother-in-law who rushed out to France (expenses paid by Farve) to bring you back. Also it was his silly & expensive idea to make you a ward in Chancery. I don’t suppose, either, that you much loved his interview to the Daily Mail – or perhaps you didn’t see it – in which he said that you only became a communist in order to ‘get even’ with me.
Well I wonder when your wedding will be, I don’t suppose I shall be invited but still.
Bedsd Lodge Vruddemb3, Je Boudle
Dear Madrigal1
I was pleased to get my old Hen’s letter. I thought I should never hear from her again.
A good many things seem to have happened since you left, but nothing of much importance.
It’s pretty dull down here without a Hen to chat to. Muv & Farve have been so depressed since you left, it’s made them look quite ill.
The cruise would have been so good for Muv but it’s rather natural she doesn’t want to go any more.2 She said all the fun would have gone without you & I think she meant it. I do hope you have enough to eat & everything. I envy you the coffee you must get there.
Do write & give an exact description of Esmond. It’s so fascinating to think of my old Hen in love that I must hear everything about him.
The hunting all the winter has been fun, & now I am training a horse.
The Grand National was marvellous, but Derek’s3 horse got knocked over by a loose horse which was disappointing. Lord Berners4 had a horse in for the first time in his life & the Mad Boy5 said to us before the race ‘If it falls at the first fence Gerald will be broken hearted’. And it did! Wasn’t it awful. But luckily he is very short-sighted & he thinks it was the second fence so all is OK.
Well dear, do write & if you want anything in the way of clothes just write to your Hen & she’ll get them for her Hen. Or anything else in fact.
Do write often to Blor. It would cheer her up. She has gone to Hastings for a week as I’m