Title
Description
Creator
Publisher
Date
Format
Language
Identifier
Transcription
37
42 East 25th St Dec 30 '83
Dear Jervy-
I hate to bore you with my troubles, but you have so often & so frankly confided your griefs to me that I feel it a right I have to lay a part of my load on you & that you have a right to bear it. I wrote a firm but kindly letter to Downing which I hoped would rouse his self-respect and restrain him from further persecution, for such his conduct has become. In reply to mine he has written a disrespectful, silly & in a certain sense, threatening letter. His first attempt sufficiently shocked Edwina, she has been ill since, &
unfortunately I had to show her this half-lunatic epistle because she saw it first & recognized, of course, the writing. This has added to her distress for he declares he will see her & that she must have her share of pain. She is kept in constant dread lest he should accost her on the street or call, as he [did?], when he thinks I am out of the house. He says he knows he's cracked but that a brass rivet has been put in, that he is a better companion, can do perspective & 'photographic mounting' better & is altogether more of a man than ever. His letter & his questioning
Betty if Edwina still cares for him, if she liked anybody else, &c. &c, would convince any disinterested person of his demented condition, did not his unmanly conduct is thus destroying the peace of one whose happiness he should strive to enhance, by his silent acceptance of her decision, prove beyond all question that he is not himself. I have not answered his letter. I am too indignant with him---nor shall I notice it as I consider it the outcome of a disordered mind. 'Tis useless to reason with him & as you say I must deal with him personally I will be compelled to do so if he persists in his present course.
All the sympathy & respect his silence heretofore made Edwina feel for him is now converted to dislike and dread. You say you have no influence with him, but if you & his father let him know that you are aware of his indelicate & cruel behavior I think it may affect him, & spare me the painful duty of taking measures to restrain him. I naturally feel great anxiety on this subject but have repressed the angry emotions he aroused in me. I have been told that he carries a pistol & (as in the case of [Rathbane?]) he will in some sudden freak do something desperate. Forgive me for thus troubling you again on this topic, but I feel, as you have often felt, that I must give vent to what is disturbing me. Sincerely yours E Booth