1 9 Blandford Sq
2 Thursday
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4 I hope you did not mind what I said about your paper; did you? I got
5quite unhappy thinking about it last night. I feel as though I I told
6Mr Thicknesse too that I didn’t like the last part; but he loves you
7so that it doesn’t matter what one says to him. I think what pains
8one is to find those one has looked on as friends have, have spoken of
9one to those who are not sympathetic & don’t like one. After Mr
10Thicknesse had gone Miss Müller burst out against the club & against
11me. She said what she said ^in her paper^ came like a revelation to all
12of us, we pretended not to have heard it before; we were too great
13cowards any of us to answer her, or ^to^ agree, with what we knew was
14the truth. I tried to say to say that what we opposed was her not
15defining what ^im^ morality & sin were, but Mr Martin, a friend of hers
16to whom she had evidently told about it; turned round on me & said "It
17wasn’t so; it wasn’t so, it wasn’t so, It isn’t true, it
18isn’t true!" I was never more astonished in my life & of course
19became silent, I didn’t say another word in justification of our
20conduct. I tell you this because you, Mr Thicknesse or Mr Parker, may
21be writing notes on her paper, & perhaps might unreadable & put ^write^
22them differently if you knew how bitter she felt. She has never been b
23see me since, the meeting; & she I thought she must be very bitter by
24the remark she made to Mr Thicknesse & myself at dinner about the club
25being made up of old maids &c. I think she is now in a nervous &
26unstrung mental & physical state, caused by her very rapp wonderful
27mental growth lately, & I wouldn’t like us to say anything very hard
28on her at the next meeting. She is a plucky, fearless, brave, truthful
29little woman, & that’s a great thing, to say of a woman. I think if
30some man such as you could get near to her & treat her mentally with
31sympathy you might help her a great deal. Don’t forget about Miss
32Jones on Monday. I would like so much that you & Henry Ellis should
33know eachother, but he is so silent & has such a thick shell & so many
34prickles, & you have such a thick shell & so many prickles, that if
35you did meet you mightn’t know each other any better than before. I
36think the best thing in life is to find the people who belong to us, &
37when I see people who seem to belong to each other I feel such an
38irresistible wish to bring them together. But it doesn’t succeed
39sometimes. Please send me Mrs Wilson’s address I want to write to
40her. ^I do like her very much.^
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42 ^Don’t mind please what I say about what you write. I like to
43criticise your writings freely.^
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45 ^I’m so glad you’re so young; you’ve got so many years to work to
46grow still. I thought you were much older till Mr Thicknesse told me,
47I’m very glad.^
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