She then said: "Clare knew you would understand, even if you didn't understand."
I said that was my exact position: "I did not understand, but I knew there was something to understand, and that therefore she was right."
Letter from Guy Cunninghame to Mrs Caryl
LONDON,
Monday, August 10th.
DEAREST ELSIE,
I have just come back from Rosedale. There is no one there except Godfrey. Lady Jarvis told us that Mrs Housman has finished the first period you told me about, and has taken the veil, though it isn't irrevocable yet, but for all intents and purposes it is, as we are all certain now that she will never leave the Convent. You know what I think about it. I haven't changed my mind, but Lady Jarvis doesn't disapprove, or is too loyal to say so.
George knows, he is going to Ireland with his sister.
I can't help thinking it is all a great, a wicked mistake, and I can't help still thinking it selfish.
George talked about Mrs Housman, at least he just alluded to her having become a nun, as if it were a fact and quite irrevocable. He said: "Once the priests get hold of someone they will never let them go, and in this case it was a regular conspiracy." But somehow or other this did not seem to me to ring quite true, from him, and I felt he was using this as a shield or a disguise or mask. I said so to Godfrey, but found it impossible to get any response. He won't talk about it.
Yours,
G.