02 December 1920
02 December 1920
2 December 1920
Villa Isola Bella, Menton, France
There is even a strong dash of the lady killer in you! And think of the way you look at yourself in a glass if a glass is in the room. You return & return & return to it; its like a woman to you. I have often noticed that. Don't forget you're only 31, Boge, and get all you can out of Life!! You see Bogey, your position is difficult. Im a writer first & a woman after, [therefore] I can't give you all you want - above all a kind of easy relax¬ation which is essential to you - and which the glass (I don't mean that in the least scornfully) provides. A man with your kind of mind cant go on being strenuous and exerting himself the whole time - for your mental activity is, as it were, separate from your life. Mine is all - so its no effort to me. The story isn't always at a crisis, don't you know, but it is all part of the story. This is an essential difference. I was blind not to have understood it in the Brett affair - but no - that was "wrong", as we say. However - do feel free. I mean that.
Its a lovely day - but by the time you come all the leaves will be gone. The last are falling. I don't know about mes roses; at present the whole garden is roses - where its not violets. The different smells of different roses - Ive only this year realised. There are 6 in my garden. I go from one to the other until I feel like a bee.
Well, darling I must go out & sit in my tent with the A. & a pencil. Take care of yourself.
Tig. [To J. M. Murry in Collected Letters 3 December, 1920]