To Ottoline Cavendish-Bentinck Morrell
22 Beaumont Street
Oxford, England. May 6th, [1916]
Dear Lady Ottoline,
How stupid of me to take for granted that you meant this week and not to notice the day of the month, which you mentioned. I am very sorry to have given you the trouble of writing again.
As to next week, so large and distinguished a party positively terrifies me. Let me drop in some day for a cup of tea simply with you. I should enjoy that so much more. It is flattering to think that you haven’t yet perceived it, or at least are giving me the benefit of the doubt, but the fact is I am a dreadful boor and unfit for general human society—especially in these days when people are so deeply divided in feeling—Please don’t think that I don’t appreciate your kindness in asking me, the fact is I feel it all the more in having to say no.
Yours sincerely,
G Santayana
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Two, 1910-1920. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001.
Location of manuscript: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin.