305  ORPHANAGE  ROAD
ERDINGTON
BIRMINGHAM

February 11th.   1937

My Dear Betty:

You sound as though you have your ‘flu under masterly control, and from your threat to return today to the office I am able to deduce either that you have swiftly recovered or else that you are being very foolish. The latter is incredible so the former it must be:   good.

Jack was up for the first time this morning, for two hours, when I called,   partly on business partly to eat any odd grapes in the bottom of the dish as it were. He is very shaky and slow moving and evanescent looking, bright eyes and angelic. He is over the worst, but he’s been damned ill, had sleeping draughts and all that, and temperatures of   103½ and down to very low levels. He had been too too brave. Anyhow, he should be out and about next week, we hope so.

Yes, I’m all Dairymaiding, but we are trying, as the result of a Grand Row,   to do it without living together, which is so depressing, as it is so virtuous, and must be,   since  the opposite is quite shudderingly unthinkable. Funny business. But I am not depressed and I shall try to find the odd hour or so to meddle with your story, which sounds promising. I think it is good, and worth while, very much so. My thirst for “happy endings”   as you so scornfully mention, is deplorable, but it springs not from my desire as an artist but from my knowledge of the damnableness of editors, who want to please, entertain and titivate the not very profound brains of their readers. Hard clear dramatic endings rarely find a market, but we’ll try. Damn the market, said he, driving off in his wife’s car.

This cannot be a proper answer, as your delightful letter deserves, for there are still things to be written, and the sooner the better. Lack of sleep and the nervous tension of doing a fortnight’s work in a little week are making the effort necessary. Its easy if I stick at it, but difficult if I relax once. So I’ll get to it again and get out a nice little “Book-list”.

No news of the cross-words from the B.Post. They must be angry or offended at me for sending them, they haven’t even sent them back in the convenient stamped envelope I sent with them !

Farewell, let me have news. I am working this week-end as far as I can tell. Next week we might do something one of the evenings. Que dites-toi ?

A bientot,