VI
On Holy Saturday, 1917, I was asked by the deputy-chairman whether I would represent the department on the mission which Mr. Balfour was taking to Washington with a view to coordinating the war-organization of Great Britain and the United States.
For the next two months Teixeira and I communicated whenever a bag passed between the British Embassy and the Foreign Office, overflowing into a brief journal betweenwhiles. He also disposed of my varied correspondence with uniform discretion and with a courage that only failed him when unknown mothers asked him if I would stand sponsor to their children.
The enquiries into the cause of your absence,he writes on 12.4.17, have been distressing. More people ask if you are ill than if you are being married. The unit of the last idea was Sutro, who then went off to Davis and found out what he wanted to know....
The enquiries into the cause of your absence,he writes on 12.4.17, have been distressing. More people ask if you are ill than if you are being married. The unit of the last idea was Sutro, who then went off to Davis and found out what he wanted to know....
13 April.The work is pretty stiff and I doubt if I can make this desultory diary as gossipy as I could have wished. And, after all, it will seem pretty stale and jejune by the time it reaches you....Your whereabouts are known now in the dept. and will be at the club to-morrow, if any one asks me again. Hitherto great wonder has reigned; but the “no blame attaches to his name” stunt has worked exquisitely.
13 April.
The work is pretty stiff and I doubt if I can make this desultory diary as gossipy as I could have wished. And, after all, it will seem pretty stale and jejune by the time it reaches you....
Your whereabouts are known now in the dept. and will be at the club to-morrow, if any one asks me again. Hitherto great wonder has reigned; but the “no blame attaches to his name” stunt has worked exquisitely.
The figure of Max Beerbohm’s caricature is seen in the following paragraph:
I have ordered eight new coloured shirts, bringing the total up to 23. Then I have about a dozen black-and-white shirts; and only seven dress-shirts, I find. This makes 42 in all. My father’s theory was that no gentleman should have fewer than eighty shirts to his name. Times have changed; and we are a petty and pettyfogging generation of mankind. On the other hand, I have 33 ties, exclusive of white ties. I feel almost sure that my father did not have so many as that. And I outdo him utterly in boot-trees, of which I have just ordered a pair to be marked “L8” and “R8,” meaning thereby that it is my eighth pair.Sursum corda.
I have ordered eight new coloured shirts, bringing the total up to 23. Then I have about a dozen black-and-white shirts; and only seven dress-shirts, I find. This makes 42 in all. My father’s theory was that no gentleman should have fewer than eighty shirts to his name. Times have changed; and we are a petty and pettyfogging generation of mankind. On the other hand, I have 33 ties, exclusive of white ties. I feel almost sure that my father did not have so many as that. And I outdo him utterly in boot-trees, of which I have just ordered a pair to be marked “L8” and “R8,” meaning thereby that it is my eighth pair.Sursum corda.
Teixeira believed with almost complete sincerity that he would die on 21 April 1917. The origin of this belief he never explained to me; and I do not know whether he confided it to others. This accounts for the following entry:
Shall I live, I wonder, till the 22nd, to write to you that I am still alive? When I allow my thoughts to dwell upon 21.4.17, now but six brief days off, there rises to them the memory of the horrible Widow’s Song which Vesta Victoria used to sing. I will start the next page with the chorus; for you, poor young fellow, know nothing of the songs that brightened the Augustan age of the music-halls.Read and admire:He was a good, kind husband,One of the best of men:So fond of his home, sweet home,He never, never wanted to roam.There he would sit by the fire-side,Such a chilly man was John!I hope and trustThere’s a nice, warm fireWhere my old man’s gone.Gallows-humour, my dear executor, gallows-humour!
Shall I live, I wonder, till the 22nd, to write to you that I am still alive? When I allow my thoughts to dwell upon 21.4.17, now but six brief days off, there rises to them the memory of the horrible Widow’s Song which Vesta Victoria used to sing. I will start the next page with the chorus; for you, poor young fellow, know nothing of the songs that brightened the Augustan age of the music-halls.
Read and admire:
He was a good, kind husband,One of the best of men:So fond of his home, sweet home,He never, never wanted to roam.There he would sit by the fire-side,Such a chilly man was John!I hope and trustThere’s a nice, warm fireWhere my old man’s gone.
He was a good, kind husband,One of the best of men:So fond of his home, sweet home,He never, never wanted to roam.There he would sit by the fire-side,Such a chilly man was John!I hope and trustThere’s a nice, warm fireWhere my old man’s gone.
He was a good, kind husband,One of the best of men:So fond of his home, sweet home,He never, never wanted to roam.There he would sit by the fire-side,Such a chilly man was John!I hope and trustThere’s a nice, warm fireWhere my old man’s gone.
He was a good, kind husband,
One of the best of men:
So fond of his home, sweet home,
He never, never wanted to roam.
There he would sit by the fire-side,
Such a chilly man was John!
I hope and trust
There’s a nice, warm fire
Where my old man’s gone.
Gallows-humour, my dear executor, gallows-humour!
16 April.Yesterday being a fine day, I have caught cold. A bad look-out, executor, a bad look-out!Adieu, cher ami.
16 April.
Yesterday being a fine day, I have caught cold. A bad look-out, executor, a bad look-out!
Adieu, cher ami.
You will observe a brief hiatus,he writes on 19 April, 1917. A letter begun to you on the 16th is reposing in my drawer at the department, where I have not been since then, having succumbed to an attack of bronchitis. And[my doctor]will not let me out till the 21st (“der Tag!”) at the earliest.
You will observe a brief hiatus,he writes on 19 April, 1917. A letter begun to you on the 16th is reposing in my drawer at the department, where I have not been since then, having succumbed to an attack of bronchitis. And[my doctor]will not let me out till the 21st (“der Tag!”) at the earliest.
Der Tagwas reached ...
21 April, 1917.It was a comfort and a joy to read this morning that your party has arrived safely at Halifax. I propose to pass this bloudie day without any cheap philosophizing. I am about cured of my bronchitis, I think, though fearsomely weak; and, if I “be” to “be” carried off to-day, it’ll be a motor-bus or -cab that’ll do for me. Look out for a letter from me dated to-morrow. I hope the voyage has done you all the good in the world....
21 April, 1917.
It was a comfort and a joy to read this morning that your party has arrived safely at Halifax. I propose to pass this bloudie day without any cheap philosophizing. I am about cured of my bronchitis, I think, though fearsomely weak; and, if I “be” to “be” carried off to-day, it’ll be a motor-bus or -cab that’ll do for me. Look out for a letter from me dated to-morrow. I hope the voyage has done you all the good in the world....
...and survived.
22 April, 1917.Ebbene, caro mio Stefano! You will be ableto tell your grandchildren that you once knew a man who for twenty years was convinced that he would die on the day when he was fifty-two years and twelve days old and who lived to be fifty-two and thirteen....Bottomley has turned against the new government and is adumbrating his ideal government. He retains the present foreign secretary, but nominates H. H. A. as lord chancellor and Sir Edward Holden as chancellor of the exchequer. He wants Beresford as minister of blockade. Oof!Robbie Ross has a story of a German poet, one Oskar Schmidt, “a charming fellow,” who, armed with the best letters of recommendation, went to Oxford and spent several agreeable weeks there. The fine flower of his observations was:“Der Oxfort oontercratuades, dey go apout between a melangolly and a flegma.”...
22 April, 1917.
Ebbene, caro mio Stefano! You will be ableto tell your grandchildren that you once knew a man who for twenty years was convinced that he would die on the day when he was fifty-two years and twelve days old and who lived to be fifty-two and thirteen....
Bottomley has turned against the new government and is adumbrating his ideal government. He retains the present foreign secretary, but nominates H. H. A. as lord chancellor and Sir Edward Holden as chancellor of the exchequer. He wants Beresford as minister of blockade. Oof!
Robbie Ross has a story of a German poet, one Oskar Schmidt, “a charming fellow,” who, armed with the best letters of recommendation, went to Oxford and spent several agreeable weeks there. The fine flower of his observations was:
“Der Oxfort oontercratuades, dey go apout between a melangolly and a flegma.”...
24 April, 1917.Your name appeared in theTimesyesterday; and I am now able to read daily, or I hope, shall be, how Mr. McKenna bowed, raised his hat and, escorted by cavalry, took his first cocktail on American soil. I do hope that you are not only having the time of your life but feeling amazingly well. J. pictures you a victim of indigestion;but I, knowing your justly celebrated strength of character, have no fears on that score.Cura ut valeas.
24 April, 1917.
Your name appeared in theTimesyesterday; and I am now able to read daily, or I hope, shall be, how Mr. McKenna bowed, raised his hat and, escorted by cavalry, took his first cocktail on American soil. I do hope that you are not only having the time of your life but feeling amazingly well. J. pictures you a victim of indigestion;but I, knowing your justly celebrated strength of character, have no fears on that score.Cura ut valeas.
4 May, 1917.This is a private-view day. The sun is blazing truculently. I am wearing a new shirt, white with black and yellow lines (the Teixeira colours), and the white hat and all’s well in God’s dear world.
4 May, 1917.
This is a private-view day. The sun is blazing truculently. I am wearing a new shirt, white with black and yellow lines (the Teixeira colours), and the white hat and all’s well in God’s dear world.
That these sartorial efforts were not wasted is shewn by the next entry:
5 May, 1917.... From yesterday’s Star:“Society Sees the Pictures“The beautiful spring day induced one Beau Brummel to sport a white box-hat”!!!
5 May, 1917.
... From yesterday’s Star:
“Society Sees the Pictures
“The beautiful spring day induced one Beau Brummel to sport a white box-hat”!!!