1 March 1921

1 March 1921

Villa Isola Bella, Menton, France

Dont think I underestimate the enormous power that parents can have. I dont. Its staggering - its titanic. After all they are real giants when we are only table high & they act according. But like everything else in Life - I mean all suffering, however great - we have to get over it, to cease from harking back to it, to grin & bear it & to hide our wounds. More than that and far more true is we have to find the gift in it. We cant afford to waste such an expenditure of feeling; we have to learn from it - and we DO, I most deeply believe come to be thankful for it. By saying we cant afford to waste - - feeling I sound odious & cynical. I don't feel it. What I mean is - everything must be accepted.

But I run on - and Im dull. How lovely your Down country sounded. Larks, too!

I am only on nodding acquaintance with Spring. We talk from the window. But she looks from this distance fairer than ever, more radiant, more exquisite. It is marvellous to know the earth is turned to the light. Murry is very well. He looks and sounds happy. I don't see a good deal of him as Im finishing a book & he's terribly busy. I wonder what you think of the fat Nation or the thin Athenaeum - like Jack Spratt & his wife. Fare well. Be happy!

                                                                                     K.M.

[To Dorothy Brett, in Collected Letters, 1 March 1921.]