Visiting

Saturday, February 6th., Royal York Hotel, Brighton.

We went to see Hornung's "Stingaree" on Monday and I arranged with Vedrenne to compress it into good shape and give it guts, with a view to turning it from a failure into a success. Subject to Hornung's consent - for £100. However, on Tuesday Vedrenne telegraphed me that Hornung refused his consent, so that is that. No reason given. I suppose it is a case of professional 'offence'. I expect I would feel the same if some other author offered to improve one of my plays!

We went to Mrs. Perrin's today, and she took us to Lady Seton's. A large house full of numberless bad pictures, etc. Mrs Perrin is, it turns out, almost exactly the same age as me. She was born in India and tells me that she took to writing to "relieve the boredom of being a British woman in India". I have read a few of her short stories and enjoyed them well enough. She was certainly observant in India, even when bored. Regrettably she is the sort of woman who is very class conscious, impressed by the aristocracy because they are the aristocracy. Marguerite liked her but I sensed that the liking was not particularly reciprocated.

I am getting on with "Clayhanger". I am resisting the temptation to 'press on regardless' as my mother would say. Instead I intend to take as long as I need and to make the book the best I possibly can.