Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	Olive Schreiner: Mary Sauer MSC 26/2.11.12
Archive	National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	February 1891
Address From	Matjesfontein, Western Cape
Address To
Who To	Mary Sauer nee Cloete
Other Versions	Rive 1987: 188-9

The manuscript of this letter by Olive Schreiner belongs to the Archive referenced above; its ownership of the original should be acknowledged by referencing the letter as indicated: Copyright transcription: © Olive Schreiner Letters Project. This transcription can be freely used as long as copyright is acknowledged and it is referenced using the following citation: ‘Olive Schreiner to Mary Sauer nee Cloete, February 1891, NLSA Cape Town, Special Collections, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.

Legend
The Project is grateful to the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Special Collections. The month and year have been written on this letter in an unknown hand.

1:  Matjesfontein
2: 
3:  My dear Mary
4: 
5:  Thank you so much for writing to me. I was feeling so depressed this
6:  morning, such an unusual thing with me, I am always so happy, & I was
7:  so glad to get your letter
8: 
9:  My plans are all now uncertain. My nephew has come out, the son of my
10:  favourite brother the person I love best in the world, & if he hasn't
11:  any one else, I must take him about a bit to Kimberley, & Grahamstown
12:  to see my mother. This month if I have to go to Kimberley won't you
13:  like to come with us? Spend a few days here first, come up with my
14:  nephew? He's a boy of 19 who has come out here for a trip before he
15:  goes to Cambridge. Please do. I will write & tell you when he is
16:  coming, & the children can stay here ^in my house^ while we go on.
17: 
18:  I am not sure of the time till I hear my nephews other plans.
19: 
20:  I've not had asthma, but I've been working hard, & was tired but am
21:  all right again.
22: 
23:  I shall have to be in Cape Town on the 10th ^of April;^ just for a day
24:  to see my sister off to England. Then I shall see you too. Some very
25:  delightful people have been staying here, a Mr Ellis an English MP &
26:  two friends.
27: 
28:  ^I expect him to call on Mr Sauer when he is in town. Hope you will
29:  both like him. He has a letter of introduction. Olive.^
30: 
31:  PS
32:  I am going to pay Peter Naude's passage home to England when my sister
33:  goes, but I'm not sure that till next year I could pay all his other
34:  expenses. If when he is in Europe he paints pictures, say, copies of
35:  old Master's, would you try to sell them for him in Cape Town??
36: 
37:  I have just heard that the woman I love almost best in all the world
38:  had to undergo a terrible operation (to have one of her ovaries
39:  removed). If I had had the least idea of it I should have gone home at
40:  once to be with her, but they completely kept it from me till it had
41:  been over for three weeks. If she should get worse again I shall go
42:  home at once.
43: 
44:  ^I don't ?understand you thought I'd rather that ?stupid ?thing^
45: 
46:  ^It will be so lovely to have the children here. I would like so to get
47:  to know Dorothy. But she has to be made friends with like a grown up
48:  person. Is Mr Sauer quite well still?^
49: 

Notation
Rive's (1987) version of this letter has been misdated, omits part of the letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.