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Elisina Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss, September 16, 1913

Côte d’Or

September 16th 1913.Tuesday.

Dearest Mildred,

We have been for a little jaunt to Dijon, Howard, Royall and I. Only two days, in which we did everything that could be done at Dijon, beginning with the museum,Musée des beaux-arts, Dijon, housed in the former palace of the dukes of Burgundy. and ending with the joys of a provincial Revue, all well-intentioned and very much en famille,“Informal.” coarse, but not evil. We laughed a great deal, and Dummer and Royall spent several hours a day feasting. You know there is very good food to be found at Dijon if you know where to look for it. We brought back a pâté de bécasse“Woodcock pâté.” which has driven the two out for a long walk to-day. They both felt it would be good for their pâté.

I wonder dearest person, where and how you are? Shall I find you in Paris on the 25th, when I come up to superintend the removal?Move from 8 rue de la Barouillère to 21 Quai de Bourbon. In fact, Elisina Tyler would come to Paris on September 26, 1913; see letter of September 23, 1913. I pray that you may be there, especially if you are to go away for some time, and take your Robert with you!The Blisses went to the United States sometime in October or November 1913, possibly to deal with issues concerning Mildred Bliss’s ownership of Centaur Company stock, and they were in Washington, D.C., in late December. See “Dimock Dinner-Dance to be a Brilliant Function,” The Washington Post, December 29, 1913.

Our quiet existence proceeds undisturbed. Grant Richards’ new novel has come out. It is called Valentine.Grant Richards, Valentine (London: Grant Richards, 1913). See “‘Very English’; Hero and Plot of Grant Richards’s ‘Valentine,’” New York Times, November 12, 1913. It has a less pleasant surface than the first book, but as a judge of the technical side, I can assure you that it is on the way to much greater things than CaviareGrant Richards, Caviare (London: Grant Richards, 1912). pointed to. One cannot write Caviare more than once, and it must be a first book. I shall be interested to hear your opinion of Valentine.

Robert asked in his letter whether it wasn’t time for more jam?See letter of August 18, 1914: "We have an Englishman [Lyulph Howard] coming to stay; hence my feverish anxiety for marmalade." It is: but I don’t want you to bother about it if it is in the least inconvenient. I daresay you have plenty for Delia to do.

My writing is spoiled by a great deal of scribbling on the Calendar. The next volume is almost dawning, and I have been hard at work on the one after. Poor Mary,Mary I (1516-1558), queen of England and Ireland (1553–1558). who was in love with the Emperor, is nearly about to accept Philip.In 1522, Mary I (1516–1558), was contracted to marry her first cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, although the engagement was soon broken off. As queen of England and Ireland, she married Charles V’s son, Prince Philip, later Philip II of Spain in 1554, in large part to produce an heir and thus prevent the Protestant Elizabeth from succeeding her to the throne. Ay de mi!“Alas!” She would have done better to break the china and say she would have none of him. A sense of duty, in the Roman Catholic sense, is a befogging of one’s instincts and reason. It is a highly impertinent fashion of re-directing the finger of Providence.

William is growing bigger and bigger and all the babyhood is going out of him. I am very sorry about it. He sends you a loving kiss, and a squeezy-tight. Please give our united love to Robert, and let me embrace you with all my heart.

Yours ever

Elisina.

 
Associated People: Grant Richards; Lyulph Howard